HE IS RISEN! This morning I shared that there have been about 1,989 Easter Sundays since Jesus rose from the dead. Easter is official celebrated in about 95 out of 195 countries around the world. The event of the Jesus’ resurrection was the changing point of human history. Even the most skeptical of scholars agree that something happened on that Sunday morning.
Everything the world is experiencing today, is a result of the that one Sunday. And what’s amazing is, if the resurrection of Jesus can be disproven, then the results of it would fundamentally change.
J. Warner Wallace is the author of Cold Case Christianity. He was an atheist detective known nationwide for his ability to solve cold cases. Cases that had been unsolved for years. He challenged himself to apply his skills to the resurrection and this is what he said, “I have to admit that I never took the time to examine the evidence for the Christian Worldview without the bias and presupposition of naturalism. I never gave the case for Christianity a fair shake. When I finally examined the evidence fairly using the tools I learned as a detective, I found it difficult to deny, especially if I hoped to retain my respect for the way evidence is utilized to determine truth. I found the evidence for Christianity as convincing as any cold-case I’d ever investigated (https://www.thepoachedegg.net/2013/11/10-apologetics-quotes-from-cold-case-homicide-detective-and-former-atheist-j-warner-wallace.html).”
Wallace said this after becoming a Christian, “Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important (https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5813898.J_Warner_Wallace).”
This day is the most important day in human history, because it says that Jesus wasn’t just a man who taught the world to be more loving, no, he was who he said he was. God come down to pay for the rebellion of humanity. Jesus taught that humanity was lost in sin, lost in their own self-absorption, their own self-worship. That no human could break the cycle of this sin, because we were chained to it.
Even philosophers like Plato, living roughly 300 years before Jesus walked the earth and completely removed from Judaism, understood this to be true. Plato envisioned humanity’s situation in the form of a cave. Where humanity was shackled so that all they could see was one wall of the cave. On that wall they saw the shadow of a puppet master. The shadows gave a vague understanding of what a tree or bird looked like. They also heard the sounds of birds and wind. But they didn’t know it was just shadows of the true things of the world. They thought the shadows were the real real. Plato ends his allegory with the idea that these chained beings needed someone from outside the cave to unshackle and bring them to the surface where they could experience true life.
This is what the prophecies of the Bible pointed towards hundreds of years before Plato made his observation. That we are shackled by sin and need God to rescue us. This is what Jesus fulfills when he comes to earth to pay for the sins of humanity and break the bondage of sin in our lives.
Easter is the day that we celebrate for this breaking point. No longer does humanity have to be chained to our sinful desires. Jesus has set anyone who wants it, free.
Jesus isn’t just any other person, but God who came down to accomplish opening a path for humanity to get back to where they were always meant to be, in a close relationship with their Creator.
This is what we talked about last week. Jesus is the Ancient King who created the universe in which we live. He is powerful and yet humble. In his power he could simply punish us for our crimes of sin. The question of why is there evil in the world comes down to a simply answer, because of us. Every time we sin we add to the evil that is in the world. A lie can lead to marriage ending in divorce. Gossip can lead to a mass shooting. Even the smallest of sins adds to the evil of the world. And so God could simply punish each of us according to our crimes. That’s the bad news.
But the Gospel means good news. And so last week we talked about how Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a donkey. This was a sign of his humility. The Eternal King entering into his city for the sole purpose of being killed on a cross so that individuals would not have to pay the punishment price for sin, but rather that price was paid in the body of Jesus. The Ancient King allowed his creation to kill him, so that the chains of sin would be broken and we would be able to come out of the cave to experience true life.
Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, is the stamp of God that says, the price of sin is paid for and anyone who accepts God’s free gift of this payment, can now experience life as it was meant to be.
People think of Easter in a lot of different ways. They think of Jesus’ resurrection in a lot of different ways. The most common, outside of what the Bible says, is that Jesus’ resurrection, his raising from the dead was just a spiritual event. That Jesus wasn’t raised in a physical form, but rather spiritually.
Yet Jesus himself and the actual account of Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t allow for this belief. While Jesus’ disciples were scared, and wondering if the rumors were true that Jesus’ tomb was empty, the Bible records what happened.
The physician Luke, investigated the event for himself and wrote this in chapter 24 of his Gospel starting in verse 36, “36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.”
The physicality of Jesus’ resurrection is essential to understanding what awaits everyone who puts their trust into Jesus as their Savior. It’s not simply a spiritual awakening, where your mind becomes clearer; where you become more enlightened and release the ills of the world. No the physical resurrection means that in this life, Jesus changes you. The way we speak, act, think, feel, all are impacted and changed. We move away from self-absorption, self-worship. We love deeper, thinking as others as greater than ourselves. Relationships are healed, circumstances, though seem overwhelming, are encountered with a peace that passes our finite understanding.
Jesus’ physical resurrection brings eternity into view, and drastically changes how we interact with the world around us. For the original followers of Jesus, they lived with an abandon mindset. That means that they didn’t care what happened to them physically in this life, because there would be a new physical body and reality ahead. Fear falls where God’s love is found. And the physical resurrection of Jesus says to this world, you can’t hold God at bay; his plans will come through no matter what we do. So we can either embrace the resurrection, which means we accept Jesus’ payment for our sins, and we make a decision to turn away from the path of sin. In doing so, God says that he will empower us with the Holy Spirit to fight against sin as it tries to re-chain us. And through that empowering of the Holy Spirit, we get to experience Jesus’ eternal life now.
Or we can reject it. But that rejection says that I want to stay in the life that I’m in. And the life for the average American is pretty good. We have food, jobs, money. We’re in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest people on earth. So I know how trusting in Jesus for the payment of sin might not seem that important. But this is what Wallace wrote in connection with that thought, “I’m not a Christian because it ‘works’ for me. I had a life prior to Christianity that seemed to be working just fine, and my life as a Christian hasn’t always been easy. I’m a Christian because it is true. I’m a Christian because I want to live in a way that reflects the truth. I’m a Christian because my high regard for the truth leaves me no alternative (https://www.thepoachedegg.net/2013/11/10-apologetics-quotes-from-cold-case-homicide-detective-and-former-atheist-j-warner-wallace.html).”
The decision to follow Jesus isn’t to fix my life, or to bring some sort of blessing into it, the decision is based on, do I recognize that I sin, which I think we all can agree to we do. We lie, cheat, steal, so yeah we sin. And since that’s true, my destiny is not a good one, there will come a day when I will have to answer for that sin in front of God.
Yet God has given a way for that sin to already be paid, that was through Jesus’ death on the cross. Your sin, my sin, everyone’s sin was paid for on the cross, and anyone who accepts that has their sin debt wiped away. The resurrection states that all of this is true.
Jesus is the Ancient King who came to earth to die for humanity’s sin, and is now the Risen King who invites all people to accept his payment.
I want to invite everyone in here today to put their trust in Jesus as their Savior. Not as a fix for your life, but because it’s true and because God loved you enough to die for you to bring you into a new life, where sin and death no longer have control over you.
To gain this free gift of sin payment, you would just need to speak to God, we call this prayer. Talk to him about how you accept that you have sinned and you can’t fix it. Talk to him about accepting Jesus’ payment on your behalf when he died on the cross. And talk to God about how you’re thankful for this action that he has, and to help you follow him.
Because that’s something a lot of people miss, we can’t just say we accept Jesus’ gift and then return to a life embracing sin. God uses the image of a dog returning to its vomit when speaking of people who return to their lives of sin. No, we are to follow Jesus and what he says. So now it’s, “I want to lie, but God I know that I don’t have to, give me the strength by your Holy Spirit to break the lying in my life.”
Following Jesus means to be strengthen by his other followers by being a part of his Church which is meeting together with other people who accepted Jesus. It’s reading his Word and applying more of what he says. And it’s daily speaking to him in prayer, and putting his Word into action.
I want to spend a minute in silence where every eye will be closed and every head would be bowed, and if you want accept Jesus’ offer of salvation, accept his free gift paying the price for you sin. I want you to take this moment of silence as an opportunity to speak to him, accepting your sin, accepting his gift, and thanking him for breaking sin’s control over you. And then ask him to give you the strength he said he would to experience this eternal life starting now and lasting forever. SO would you bow your head and close your eyes?
(Silence)
While every eye is closed and every head bowed if you accepted Jesus’ gift today, I want you to raise your hand because after the service I want to give you a gift to help you along your way. For those of you who did, I want you to open your eyes, so I can talk directly to you. I want to invite you back next week when we talk about the return of Jesus. Today your life has altered course. You are a new creation. Your life is now connected to Jesus’. Since Jesus was physically raised with an eternal body, so will you. It’s a new day, and many knew horizons are before you. I want to welcome you into God’s extended family called the Church, we’re here to support you as you take your first steps in your new life. Welcome.
To those of you if you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior today, I want to invite you back next week as well, because we will be looking at the state of the world and how the day of Jesus’ return is getting closer. Know that we pray for you, that we care for you, and that we want to help you even if you never accept Jesus as your Savior. Because we know God loves you and we do too.
If everyone else would open their eyes. I give a challenge every week as I end. I want to challenge those of you who have accepted Jesus for the first time to not leave without receiving the gift of a Gospel of John. I want to challenge you to read it. It has questions in it that you might have, and it will help you understand Jesus even better as you move forward in his life.
To you who are still skeptical, I want to challenge you to read J. Warner Wallace’s book, Cold Case Christianity. If you can’t find it, or can’t afford it, I will personally buy it for you. Wrestle with what he wrestled with, so that you may take seriously the evidence for the physical resurrection of Jesus.
And to you who are already believers in Jesus, I want to challenge you to read through the resurrection accounts in the Gospels and rejoice because since Jesus was true to his word that he would resurrect, then he will be true to his word that he will return.
Let us rejoice this morning in the resurrection of Jesus our Savior, and move forward in a world that is in darkness as lights of the great God we serve. Because He is Risen! Amen.
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