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Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen. As he said, ‘Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.'” Amen. Amen, in the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints, Jesus is risen from the dead. We rejoice in it. It gives to us such a fantastic joy and peace that we are sustained in this life and carried through all the troubles of this life and brought at last to the joys of heaven. We have the wonderful privilege today, really every day, but especially today of meditating on this great victory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead and who has ascended and sits at the Father’s right hand.
As we begin, I want to try to press into the joy of the resurrection of Jesus by talking about the problem that we have, that humanity has, and that is death. There is, and this has been something that has occurred to me multiple times over the last few weeks, as we watched the news of the coronavirus before, as it was a rumor in China, and then as it spread over to Europe and then started to come in amongst us. All of the charts and the growth rates and the graphs, and one of the big questions that was being asked was, “What is the mortality rate? How deadly is this? 10%? 3%? 1%? .1%? What’s the mortality rate?”
But the thing that occurred to me, as people were talking about this, was that the mortality rate for being human is 100%. We might not die by a disease, or by a heart attack, or by some other pestilence, or by an accident, or simply by old age, but all of us, if Jesus does not return, all of us will die—one hundred percent. And there’s nothing that we can do about it. I mean, there is no vaccine, there is no medicine, there’s no doctor who can stop you from dying. Soon, death will come to each of us.
It’s so normal that you think that we would be used to it by now. Generation after generation, after all, has died. And each of us, if we pause simply for a moment, and maybe this is one of the advantages of this time of pestilence, is that it causes us to pause and reflect on this fact that all of us are going to die. But we know it, and it comes to us over and over, and you would think that we would be used to it.
And in fact, the world tries to tell us that we should be used to it. There’s a phrase that I think I saw at one time on some PBS special that was talking about evolution. There’s a phrase that’s pandered to us and given to us that says that death is natural. Or maybe it’s often said like this: “Death is part of life.” It’s the Lion King Elton John song, “The Circle of Life.” You’re born, and then you die, so we should come to grips with it.
But even though we know that death is coming to us, even though we know that everybody dies, there’s still in each one of us something that knows that that’s not right. Something—even in the most hardened atheist and the most distant unbeliever—there’s something that echoes in our hearts and our minds that tells us that this is not how it’s supposed to be, that we’re not supposed to die.
Death is natural, but we know better. Death is not what we were made for. We were made for life. But what are we going to do about it? We know we’re not supposed to die, but we know that there’s nothing that we can do to stop death from coming to us. So we just simply have to resign ourselves to the fact that death is coming, that you live and then you die, that this is the way of all flesh until Jesus comes.
And He assaults death and wins. He assaults the grave and has the victory. Jesus takes on all three of our ancient foes: sin, death, and the devil—all three of them—and he destroys them all. Sin forgiven, the devil destroyed, and death is now gone because of his resurrection. Jesus is that thing that we are longing for as we recognize that death is not natural, that death is not the way that things are supposed to be. Jesus is the thing that we’ve been hoping for. Jesus is the one that we’ve been looking for, and now his resurrection has come.
God be praised that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, hallelujah. You, the ancient foe, death, who won every previous battle, now has lost to our Jesus. I want to say three things about this—three maybe realms of meditation on the fact of our Lord’s resurrection.
The first is the fact of the resurrection. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, which is, by the way, your homework this week to read 1 Corinthians 15. The whole chapter is a beautiful meditation on the resurrection. And Paul writes in verse 16, “If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Jesus, then also, those who have fallen asleep in Christ Jesus have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The resurrection of Jesus is not mythological; it’s not a story; it’s not a fable. It is a historic fact. The empty tomb stands as proof of the divinity of Jesus and not only of his divinity but also of his goodness, of his mercy, and his love. I heard some time ago a report. It was one of these survey questions where they were surveying various Christians, and one of the questions they asked was, “Would you still be a Christian if they found the dead body of Jesus?” In other words, if the resurrection could be disproved, would you still remain in Christ? Would you still call yourself a Christian? And something like 85, 87 percent of the people who were asked the question said, “Yeah, I’d still be a Christian.”
Dear saints, that is the wrong answer. If Christ is not raised from the dead, we amongst all people are most to be pitied. If Christ is not historically, really raised from the dead, then we of all people are the worst, propagating a lie, standing on thin air. If Christ is not raised from the dead, if Jesus is still in the grave, then we should probably turn this building into a bowling alley, sell the property, live it up. Because if Christ is not raised from the dead, all we have is this life, and there is nothing else. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
But Christ is risen from the dead, just as he said. His grave is absolutely empty. The cloth that was wrapped around his face was folded and left where he got up. He was seen by witnesses: by the women, by the disciples, by over 500 at one time, and this stands as an irrefutable fact that Jesus is raised.
Second, the faith of the resurrection. So, the fact, and now the faith. What does it mean that Jesus is resurrected? What does it mean theologically? The best illustration that I know to explain this comes from football. Some of you, if you’re old enough, might remember the game football that we used to play.
There was a question—here’s the riddle for those of you who remember football: When are the points scored? If the running back has the ball and he runs and he crosses the goal line, his work is finished. He takes the ball, he spikes it on the ground, he does a dance, he looks around, everyone cheers. That’s it. His work is over. The touchdown is scored. But is that when the points are awarded? The points are not awarded until the official, the umpire, who’s standing there on the goal line, raises his hands and says, “Touchdown.” Or now they go to the booth review, and they have to look at it for five, and then they say, “Touchdown.” Now the point is, when are the points applied? When the runner crosses the goal line or when the official accepts it and says that it was good?
If you could let me take that analogy to the resurrection, the resurrection is God the Father saying to the death of Jesus, “It’s good, it counts, the sacrifice is acceptable.” The victory that Jesus won on the cross—it’s finished. It’s his crossing the finish line, and the resurrection is the Lord God vindicating that sacrifice, saying that it’s sufficient, a sufficient ransom to pay the price for all sinners, so that the resurrection of Jesus puts the stamp of approval on His suffering and death, on His cross.
It, in fact, lifts up the cross. A lot of times people have this conflict between the cross and the empty tomb. They’ll see, for example, a crucifix and say, “But Jesus was off the cross and out of the tomb.” Well, true enough, but the tomb amplifies the work of the cross. The empty tomb is God shouting with a bullhorn that the death of Jesus is a worthy death, is a sufficient death, is an atoning death, that his sacrifice is enough to end all sacrifices, so we rejoice that Jesus takes the victory of the cross and carries it up through death, through the grave, to the Father’s right hand.
And third, there is the hope of the resurrection—the fact and the faith, and now hope. The Bible calls Jesus the firstfruits of the resurrection, which means that there’s more resurrection to come, which means that you will be raised on the last day. It’s wonderful to think about that when Jesus was on the cross, He alone was on the cross. He alone was suffering there, the wrath of God. He was our substitute so that he, as a single individual, was suffering all of these things because of sinners.
But when he’s raised from the dead, he’s not alone. When he comes up out of the grave, he doesn’t intend to be alone. But he’s bringing you and I; he’s bringing us with him. He’s the firstfruits of the resurrection, which means that there are more to follow. The picture is of a farmer who apparently in the ancient world, you know, would buy a batch of seed and plant it, and you wouldn’t know if the seed was good or not until the first seed sprouted, and there it is—the first fruits. And you know that if that seed is good, then the rest of the seed will be good.
Well so it is with Jesus. When he comes up out of the grave, then you know that you also will be up out of the grave—all people raised and the Christian raised to life eternal. We are not Gnostics. We do not believe that the body is bad and the spirit is good. We do not believe that when we die and our soul goes to heaven, that’s it, that’s the end of the story. No, but on the last day when Jesus comes back, He will raise our bodies and join our souls and bodies back together. And for the Christian who knows this victory of Jesus over sin, death, and the devil, we will stand before him, body and soul, forever in the resurrection.
And this is our hope. I mean, especially as we see things falling apart in the world and as we see people dying and as we check the news every night to see how many more people have died. And as the whole world groans, we know that we’re waiting for something better. And Jesus gives us the glimpse of that something better. Here, one day, your grave will be as empty as Jesus’ tomb, and you will live before Him in glory and righteousness and peace. This is our hope.
Because just like everything that Jesus does—His death, His suffering, His bleeding, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension—all of it is for you, for your life, and for your salvation. So, dear Saints, be of good cheer. Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. His resurrection, His resurrection is for you.
God’s peace be with you. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.