The Third Day

Endings and Beginnings  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  23:38
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It was necessary, unavoidable that The Son of Man be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again for two reasons: (1) our biggest problem is sin and (2) we need the ressurection life of Jesus in us to overcome that problem.

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On Resurrection Sunday 2017, I preached on the passage before us today. In that sermon, I gave a comprehensive interpretation of the entire resurrection event recorded by Luke in these 12 verses. You can find that sermon on our website. However, today, I want to focus specifically on verse 7. which reads,
Luke 24:7 NIV
‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
While the story of the Resurrection of Jesus has much to teach us - and it can never be exhausted. It is nevertheless proper and important that today we focus on this one verse. For the apostles and the early church a form of this verse summarized what it means to preach the Gospel.
In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul writes,
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1–2, NIV)
1 Corinthians 15:3–5 NIV
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.
Is it any wonder that the Apostles and early church clung to this simple statement of the Gospel? In the Gospel of Luke alone Jesus uses similar language three times to prepare his disciples before his Crucifixion.
Later in Luke 24, we see Jesus encounter two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In describing what happened to Jesus to someone they perceived as a stranger, they said,
Luke 24:20–21 NIV
The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
They use the same language Jesus had used with them. They seem to have had a hope for something to happen on the third day - but for them in that moment it was a hope not yet realized.
In response, Jesus says to them,
Luke 24:25–27 NIV
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
What it taught was just what the two disciples had recounted to Jesus: the Messiah must be delivered into the hands of sinners, crucified, and then raised again.
Our verse tells us that these three actions must occur in the life of the Son of Man. The word translated “must” carries the sense of “to be necessary — to be unavoidably determined by prior circumstances.”[1]
In our culture, we consider someone’s last words to be especially important. When we leave a position or an organization, we sometimes can say, “a few last words.” In those moments, if no one has ever listened to us before, they will usually listen to us now. In that moment, we share what we hope are words that will be remembered; words that will imprint a legacy of what we tried to accomplish on those we are now leaving behind.
Luke records “the few last words” of Jesus before his ascension and they went like this,
Luke 24:45–48 NIV
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Being a good teacher, to wrap things up, Jesus told his disciples again, one more time, what He had already told them - because this is what he wanted them to remember. This is what he wants them to preach . . . and it worked.
In his first sermon Peter used a variation of the theme Jesus taught the disciples saying,
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:23–24, NIV)
That day about three thousand persons repented - because they heard the message of the Third Day!

The Son of Man

was Jesus’ favorite title for himself in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
He used it to refer to himself as one of us being flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. In fact, Jesus was more human than any of us will ever experience. He lived in this world as the only human always rightly related to God in all things, at all times. Jesus, the Son of Man shows us what being human looks like as God intended humanity to be. And now, because Jesus by the Holy Spirit lives in us it is his unrelenting project to reproduce that kind of human life in us. Jesus tells us,
John 15:5 NIV
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus is at work in us to produce human life powered by the power that raised the Son of Man to life again. Toward that end,
Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would know God’s “incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,” (Ephesians 1:19–20, NIV)
Jesus used Son of Man to speak of his authority on earth. When teachers of the law were upset because Jesus forgave the sins of a paralyzed man, Jesus proved his authority saying,
Mark 2:9–12 NIV
Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
The authority of the Son of Man amazed the people. What is more amazing is that Jesus wants to exercise that same authority through us.
John 14:12 NIV
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Jesus used the title Son of Man to show that he was in the world as a suffering servant. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus intends to replicate that quality of life in us. Jesus told his disciples,
Mark 10:42–45 NIV
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Finally, Jesus used the Son of Man language to speak of his Future Exaltation and Glory with teachings like this,
Matthew 24:27 NIV
For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Show slideBullet points are for slide only - not to be read
The Son of Man
Delivered
Crucified
Raised
You see it was necessary, unavoidable that The Son of Man be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again . . .
For two reasons:
Slide Text - read points 1 & 2 not the title
Two Reasons why it was necessary that the Son of Man be delivered, crucified, and raised
Our biggest problem is sin
We need the resurrection life in us to overcome that problem
The biggest problem in our world is not COVID-19. Our biggest problem is not economic difficulties that COVID 19 is leaving in its wake. Our biggest problem is not political division or even political dysfunction. At a personal level whatever we think our biggest problem is - it is not what we think it is.
Our biggest global problem, our biggest national problem, our biggest community problem, and our biggest personal problem is sin.
Sin is turning away from living in the way God has prescribed for us in his Word as the path that is best for our spiritual, mental, social, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Sin is turning to any substitute for God to support our wellbeing.
There is a remedy for that. The prophet Isaiah captured that remedy in these beautiful words,
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him [Jesus the Son of Man) the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, NIV)
The only way out of our sin is to have the life of Jesus in us. Jesus said,
John 14:19–20 NIV
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Jesus has one and only one mission: to save his people from their sins.
don’t read the verse.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”” (Matthew 1:21, NIV)
It was necessary to deliver the Son of Man into the hands of sinners to crucify him, and for him to rise again on the Third Day for the forgiveness of sins.
That is why . . .

We must have the Third Day!

We must have the Third Day . . .
For all have sin have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin are death!
We must have the Third Day . . .
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3, NIV)
We must have the Third Day . . .
in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4, NIV)
We must have the Third Day . . .
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2, NIV)
We must have the Third Day . . .
because Jesus said, The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.
We must have the Third Day . . .
for God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:19–20, NIV)
Brothers and Sisters, when it comes our time to say "a few last words” may they be something like this . . . “‘It was necessary that Jesus, the Son of Man be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified for the forgiveness of sins and be raised again on the third day .’ ”
[1] Faithlife Corporation. (2020). to be necessary (Version 8.12) [Computer software]. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation. Retrieved from https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.be+necessary.v.01
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