Easter 2007
Good News Matthew 28 April 8, 2007
We have news overload: The tallest man in the world (7’ 9”), Bao Xishun, of Inner Mongolia, finally got married; after almost 6 years, Robert Garside finished running around the world – 35,000 miles; and at Google headquarters in Manhattan, they found the pet python that had escaped after searching for 3 days – a “google search” I suppose. But who cares?
But there is news that matters: if you heard, “Alien space ship lands in Washington D.C. – details at 11”, you’d tune in for sure! The resurrection of Jesus is more important than that, it concerns all humanity, for all eternity. That’s why it is at the center of the Christian faith and preaching – Paul went so far as to say that without it our faith is completely empty and useless!
I. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything.
A. Matthew records the events of the resurrection.
1. Matthew 27 records the excruciating death of Jesus on the cross; and how the women (26:55ff) helped to lower him from the cross – feeling with their own hands the cold dead body of Christ. They knew He was dead, the way you know when you touch a body. The first dead body I touched was my mother. I was a young teen and she was in a casket at the front of the church. We were supposed to walk by, but I wanted to touch her and I didn’t know the rules. I looked both ways and then touched her forehead – it wasn’t her, I could tell in an instant! I knew she was gone just as these women knew when they touched him that Christ was dead.
2. Heartbroken, weeping, they waited on the Sabbath, and at dawn on Sunday morning they went to the tomb to complete the ritual of burial. And to their surprise the stone was rolled away and an angelic messenger told them the amazing news, “He is not here, for He has risen just as he said!”
B. Everything changed in that one moment:
1. Dead men – bodies torn to ribbons by whips, bleeding to death - can rise again? Jesus’ promise to rise from the dead is true? Jesus has power over death?
2. What am I supposed to do now? Can I just go on with my life – cook my food, get the kids off to school, apply for a new job, plan the vacation, put away for retirement, visit the grandparents?
C. Here’s what the resurrection means, according to Jesus – 28: 19, 20.
1. All authority belongs to Him – His rules heaven and earth, that is to say, He is God. As John 1:1 said, “all things were made through Him” so now He has the right to rule over every atom, animal and person.
2. Therefore – as a result of who He has demonstrated Himself to be – everyone in the world is called to become His disciple. He spells it out in verse 20:
a. Teach them… – Because Jesus is risen from the dead, He calls people in all nations to learn His teachings in the Bible.
b. To observe/apply – not just head knowledge, being able to win the “Bible” category on Jeopardy, but to make changes so that we live observing His commands: He claims authority to tell me what is right and wrong/what to do with my money/ who I can and can’t sleep with/when and how to worship/how to treat people who hurt me – it gets personal!
II. If you were a country, this would be an invasion – a new government, a new King establishing His rule – “commands” – in your life! I don’t think people want to hear that! Do you? “Hey, nobody’s going to tell me how to live!”
A. But some invasions are welcome! The Bible says we’re doing as well as we think on our own.
1. When the Allies finally invaded Paris in August of 1944, at the end of WW II, the city had suffered under the tyranny of Hitler for 4 years. The invading forces were liberators, welcomed with parades, cheers, flowers and kisses!
2. During those 4 years, some in France accepted bondage to Hitler , learned to live with the evil around them – the Vichy government sent thousands of Jews to concentration camps, and 100’s of thousands of French to work as slave labor in the factories of Germany to produce weapons.
B. The resurrection says that Jesus comes as a liberator from the tyranny of sin and death.
1. But many don’t want to Christ because it means changing their lives. So instead of changing ourselves, we change Jesus: resurrection becomes just an inspiring tale; Jesus becomes just a good man who shared inspiring teachings which we can take or leave like any other inspiring teaching.
2. The problem is that it’s a lie! It contradicts the history in gospels, the eyewitnesses and the claims of Jesus.
C. Do I prefer to believe a lie so I can live as I want, or would I want to hear the truth even if it threw my life into upheaval?
1. Would Joyce have wanted the truth? Joyce (Hatto) was an accomplished pianist in Great Britain. She had a “modest career” touring in Europe in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But then she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and retired to her home.
a. Her husband, William, loved her greatly and built her a studio in their home, and created a record label under which he began issuing CD’s of her music – some 100 discs were released full of amazing performances of some of the most difficult piano pieces. She couldn’t perform, but critics gushed over the beauty of her recorded music. The Boston Globe called her the “greatest living pianist that almost no one has ever heard of.” Joyce died in June of ‘06, at the age of 77, at the height of her popularity.
b. It’s a beautiful love story, a wonderful tale of triumph in adversity – except that Joyce was living a lie. After her death, critics discovered that her pieces were identical to pieces recorded by other pianists.
c. William finally confessed: because of he loved his wife, and in an attempt to ease her suffering, he had taken other recordings and passed them off as his wife’s without her knowledge! Would you want to live in such a pleasant lie? If the truth threatened to jar your life, would you want to hear it?
2. Did this pretense help her? When she was in her 70’s and William read her the rave reviews these fake recordings were getting, she said, “It doesn’t matter, it’s too late now.” William, for all his love, couldn’t lift her spirits, couldn’t give her life, and couldn’t even give her a lasting legacy – because the lie was discovered.
III. Jesus is risen – nothing is the same. So why not ignore the resurrection of Jesus and enjoy our sad days in blissful ignorance? Because this is good news. Jesus, who conquered death, can do for us what poor William, with all his love couldn’t do for his wife.
A. Jesus liberates our past, present and future.
1. Past. (I still blush at some things I’ve done!) “All authority…” – He could use that authority to afflict us for not worshipping Him, crush us for hurting others, torment us for deceiving others and lying to ourselves, like my 5th grade teacher who used to hit us on the knuckles with a ruler when we whispered, or Saddam Hussein who butchered those who opposed him. But instead, He said He has authority to forgive sins! (Mt. 9:6). Jesus liberates our past from the burden of guilt, regret and shame.
2. Present. “Teach…observe…” – When we believe, the way we live changes because we trust the words of Jesus as our loving Creator. Like the traveler who came to the Mississippi at night, in the dead of winter. He had to cross. He started crawling across, worrying about falling through the ice, trying to spread out his weight, on his belly in the dark of night, dragging himself across the frozen surface. And he heard a jingling of bells behind him, and the clap of hoofs and a sleigh, with several people in it, pulled by two huge horses, came up behind him and then passed him, leaving him on his belly hugging the ice. Everything changed – the ice is thick, it’s safe, I can stand and walk and run! How foolish it would be for him to continue sliding on his belly like a worm! Jesus is risen! He is the God who made me and loves me! How foolish to go on living and ignore what He taught!
3. Future. “I am with you…” – death has been conquered, it is not the last chapter in our lives, but the beginning of volume II of our biography! Imagine a fetus in the womb, nervously fingering the umbilical cord with its newly formed fingers, “Oh no, fingers! Where did they come from? I’m getting older, new parts are popping out all over – wow, aging is awful. This wonderful life is going to be over soon – and nothing I do can stop it, but I’m not ready I tell you! I’m too young to be born!” And then getting philosophical, “In view of birth, none of my life makes any sense! What was the point of all those somersaults I worked so hard on? It all ends in birth…” But Christ has conquered death; our death is a birth into a far more wonderful world.