"After Three Days"
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Intro
Intro
In the church, every Sunday is a celebration of our Lord’s resurrection, without this historical event we literally have no church at all. Beyond that and more importantly without the resurrection we have no life at all. When we celebrate Easter we go beyond a celebration, today, we commemorate our Lord’s resurrection from the grave.
Every Sunday is a ce
In our society today, people will absolutely celebrate anything, but to commemorate something or someone is to remember either who they were or what happened in an event. Easter, brings both of these together for believers and unbelievers alike to consider who Jesus is and what He did. As believers we celebrate and worship, unbelievers are at least confronted with the possibility that what the Bible says is true.
This is nothing new; three days after Jesus crucifixion believers and unbelievers alike were forced to consider who Jesus was and whether or not they would believe or not. Those who believed celebrated and worshipped while the unbelievers conspired and rejected. Today, as we commemorate our Lord’s resurrection and explore the biblical account of the event that shaped all of history, I pray that you will consider the truth of who Jesus is and commit yourself to love and follow Him more closely than ever before.
His Promise
His Promise
Jesus never hid the fact that He would die and rise again, as a matter of fact He promised it. He promised it to His disciples privately and proclaimed it to the religious leaders and crowds publicly. It was these public proclamations that were on the religious leaders minds as they stood before Pilate on the Saturday evening after the Sabbath had passed imploring Pilate to secure Jesus’ tomb in .
That He Would Die
That He Would Die
It is my strong belief that the religious leaders of Jesus day knew exactly who Jesus was and still they rejected Him for their own selfish reasons. Each of the Gospel writers record that Jesus taught them that He would die and that after three days He would rise from the dead.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
When Jesus made talked of His death with the religious leaders He spoke plainly to them so they would understood exactly what he meant.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The religious leaders and the Pharisees were students of the Scriptures and they knew the prophecies that the Messiah would suffer and die Like , and
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
Zech. 12:10
That He Would Live
That He Would Live
That He Would Live
That He Would Live
For those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the mention of His death struck fear in their hearts to the point that they just refused to hear it. For the religious leaders and the Pharisees, what scared them was Jesus promise that He would live again. It is true that every person must die and on that Saturday after Jesus’ crucifixion there was no doubt that Jesus was dead. But what if, Jesus was indeed the Messiah and He was the one whom David had spoken of in the Psalms.
I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Pslam 16:8-10
What if His promise that He would live again was true; what would they do then? It was during the Passover celebration just three years earlier, that Jesus stood in the Temple courtyard and cleansed it by throwing out the money changers and merchants. When the religious leaders asked Him for sign of His authority to cleanse the Temple, they all heard His promise that he would rise from the dead.
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
John 2:18
His Proof
His Proof
For generations unbelievers have tried to prop up their refusal to accept that Jesus is who He says He is by claiming that He never really died. That was never the claim of the religious leaders or the disciples and in fact the actions of both on the day of the resurrection prove not only that Jesus died but that He had in fact risen from the dead and was alive again.
His Proof
His Proof
The first thing all the accounts of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection prove to us is that He was dead.
That He Was Dead
That He Was Dead
When we look at the actions of the people around Jesus at the time of His crucifixion, we can see that they believed He was dead.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
The Disciples
The women
The religious leaders
The actions of these people prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was dead.
That He Was Alive
That He Was Alive
When we look at the actions of the people around Jesus at the time of His resurrection, we can see that they believed He was alive.
, we can see that they believed He was dead.
The Religious Leaders
Jesus
It was the disciples that needed proof that He was alive, their actions prove that. Jesus told them to meet Him in Galilee, but once the word from the women got out they gathered in the Upper Room instead and late on the evening of His resurrection John Records:
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When Jesus appeared in their midst that evening there was no doubt that He was alive. Now all the questions would arise. What next; what would happen from here and many more.
Jesus spent
His Presence
His Presence
Even though Jesus stood in their presence there were some among the disciples that struggled with doubt. Perhaps you doubt His power, or maybe you doubt His presence in your life. Jesus wants you to know today that for those who believe in Him He will be with you forever.
Among The Disciples
Among The Disciples
Jesus did not just show up in the Upper Room and then ascend to the Father. There was still work He needed to do and He spent forty days among His disciples teaching them and preparing them for what lay ahead. As the time for His ascension drew near, He asked His disciples to meet Him in Galilee and this time they do. When He appeared to them He gave them a commission that we still follow today, it’s know as the Great Commission:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Among His People
Among His People
Here in the Great Commission we have one of Jesus’ greatest promises to us, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This means that He is in our presence right now, that He not only walks with us but lives in us. He rose from the dead, He is alive for all eternity and He is in our presence right now. There is no need to wait any longer to experience Him, to know Him, and to be changed by Him.
One of the special ways we commemorate our Lord’s death and resurrection is to share in the meal that He initiated on the knight He shared the Passover with His disciples. As we prepare to share in this meal together, will you take a moment and consider what Jesus said to Lazarus’ sister Martha before he raised her brother from the dead? As Martha struggled to understand her brothers death and Jesus’ absence at the time even though she had sent word for him to come to them, Jesus reassured her saying, “Your brother will rise again.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
John 11
Let’s take a moment this Easter Sunday to prepare our hearts to receive His meal and say thank you for His promise, His Proof and His Presence among us today by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Third cup is the cup of Salvation in the Passover feast. This is the cup Jesus shared with His disciples in the Last Supper.