Easter 2022

To start out this morning, I want to take just a few minutes and do a little recap of our Good Friday study. Maybe some of us are very familiar with the history and purpose of Good Friday and Easter, but I don’t ever want to just assume that’s the case for everyone.  And the reality is that sometimes great familiarity doesn’t mean it’s actually completely sunk in all the way yet anyways. So, looking back to Good Friday we went all the way through John 18 and 19. We looked at how this sequence of events started as Jesus was betrayed, abandoned, and even denied by His closest friends. And even that right there on its own is terrible. I’m sure we have all had experiences where people have hurt us in ways that might seem worse than any physical pain could ever feel. But for Jesus, that was just the start of what has become Good Friday for us, but in reality, was a really bad Friday for Him.

 

Most of Jesus’ friends had run while He was being arrested, a couple ended up coming back to the general area that they took Him to, but we know at least one of them was denying any association with Him. At the end of the day, He was essentially alone in the process as He was brought before various religious and political authorities. And in front of these people, He faces an unjust trial, He’s done nothing actually wrong, but the religious elite don’t believe that He is Who He says that He is. And so, His trial continues and it’s interesting because the Roman politician that ended up overseeing much of this clearly recognized that Jesus had done nothing wrong. He even tried to get Him off by reminding the Jewish leaders that there was a custom to release a prisoner during the Passover, and it was Passover time, but those same Jewish leaders just riled up the crowds and said that we will take this other clearly guilty notorious criminal instead and keep Jesus on trial.

 

And we sitting back at this point, must recognize that Jesus is God come down as a man, a perfect sinless man, fully God and yet still fully man. But in His power as God, He could have stopped all of this at any time, but He didn’t.

 

Well, we looked at a passage in Hebrews 12 on Friday. Hebrews 12:1-2 and let me read this to you.

 

Notice what is says there, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.” That unjust trial that was held for Jesus ended with Him being mocked, beaten, whipped, beard torn out, crown of thorns dug into His head, and then literally nailed to a Roman cross. And yet those verses in Hebrews 12 tell us that there was a joy so great in front of Him that made all of the horrors of Good Friday worth it to Him. That joy was Him knowing that His sacrifice was the only way that sinful people like each and every one of us would ever be able to turn from our sin and have an actual relationship with God Himself. Our sin or every wrong thing that we say, think, or do that doesn’t line up with what God would have us do, and that sin separates us away from Him. Jesus’ death was for OUR SINS, not His, He didn’t have any. Our sin deserves some serious consequences, even all the way to death, and Jesus stepped in and said I’ll take those consequences so that you don’t have to, and He gave His life on that cross. And then they shoved a spear into His side just to make sure that He was dead and then some of His followers came and took His body and placed it in a tomb. And that’s where we left things on Friday.

 

But Good Friday would never really be good if it wasn’t for what is coming next and I know we have been following these events on Fridays through the Gospel of John, but this morning I want to continue the story in the Gospel of Luke. And so, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 24.

 

So, as we went over already, Jesus was dead and He had been buried. They had verified His death by sticking a spear in his side before He was taken down off of the cross and placed in the tomb. He had been placed in the tomb by a man named Joseph and also by a man named Nicodemus who Jesus has engaged with during His ministry. But these guys were trying to operate under the radar a little bit, trying to not catch the attention of the people that had gone after Jesus. Joseph had gone in secret to ask Pilate, the Roman politician, for permission to take Jesus’ body and Nicodemus met him and brought the things necessary for a proper burial. But again, they were kind of doing this in secret, trying to avoid attention, and probably a bit rushed. And so, when we pick up here in Luke, we find these women now heading to the tomb to make sure that Jesus’ body was properly cared for and prepared according to their customs and their culture. And as a side note, it’s funny because in Mark 16 there is a record of these women having a conversation with each other on the way here to the tomb and in this conversation, they are wondering how in the world they are going to move the stone away from the tomb so that they can do these things.

 

But as we just read in Luke, when they approached the tomb, they found the stone already rolled away and as verse 3 says that they went in and did not find Jesus’ body like they expected to. It says they stood there perplexed, or confused, and two men in shining clothes now stood by them. And they were afraid, I mean of course they were afraid, you’re standing there already confused and suddenly there are these guys in shining clothes around you, that’s only going to be adding to the confusion. And their response is to begin bowing down to these men, but as they do this, these men, or these angels begin to speak. And what they say is the first statement of what changes everything for mankind. We have to realize that these women, the disciples, for everyone around Jesus, this was an incredibly dark time, because the one they thought was there to save them was dead and how can a dead person now save them? And even when they got to this tomb and it was open and empty, they were still confused, they didn’t realize what was going on yet, and so the angels standing next to them reminded them of what Jesus had said was going to happen and also informed them that it had actually happened. We see that in verses 5 through 7.

 

 

And then right after that in verse 8: “And they remembered His words.” They remembered Jesus’ words. The angels reminded them that this is exactly what Jesus had said was going to happen. Even down to the fact that His death would be by crucifixion and of course followed by the fact that he was going to rise to life three days later. Now maybe they all forgot His words through all of the dramatic events of the last few days, maybe they just didn’t believe it to be possible, but it doesn’t sound like anyone was counting down the days to welcome Jesus back. But this group of women had the incredible privilege of being the first people alive to know that Jesus Christ was alive, and salvation was back on the table. And so, they took off from the tomb, I’m sure they were running, I’m sure they were besides themselves, and they went immediately to tell the disciples or the apostles what had happened. But they themselves and the news that they are bringing does not get a great reception when they get there.

 

Look at verse 11, it says “And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.” Some other bible translations have this as “their words seemed like nonsense to them”. These women come probably bursting into the room with excitement to announce that Jesus is not dead any longer, HE IS RISEN, HE IS ALIVE! Only to be met by the majority of this room probably in a blank stare calling it all nonsense. It sounds like this was opinion of the whole room, except two that we know of. Verse 12 tells us that Peter jumps up and runs to the tomb (and we know from John’s Gospel that John went with him as well at this point). Peter sees the linen that Jesus was wrapped with, obviously does not see Jesus wrapped in that linen any longer, and marvels to himself at what had happened. You know Peter gets a lot of flak and sometimes rightly so for some of the things that he does, I mean he just chopped off someone’s ear a few days ago in the garden and then lied about knowing Jesus three times. But here he gets some credit, when almost everyone else in that room doubted, Peter took off running to see the empty tomb. And he knew at that moment exactly what it meant.

 

 

And as this chapter continues, we begin to see Jesus interacting with people, because as we just found out, He is very much alive. And in verses 13 all the way down to verse 35 there is such an interesting account of one of these interactions.

 

How interesting is this? Here we find two men who after everything is apparently said and done over the last few days of seeing Jesus die and trying to come to grips with that. There probably being a collective sense of grief and mourning amongst His people in the days that followed the crucifixion. But here, three days later they are finally heading out of the area, and it sounds like they are having a pretty serious conversation about everything that had gone down in the past few days. And while they are walking and talking and on their way to this village called Emmaus, this man that they don’t recognize walks up alongside of them and joins the conversation. We know from this side of things that this was Jesus, but these guys weren’t aware of that. It says in verse 16 that their eyes were restrained, they were stopped from recognizing who they were talking with. And so, Jesus joins the conversation with essentially “What are you guys talking about and why are you so sad?” And they are taken back by this and were basically like, man have you been living under a rock? How have you been in Jerusalem and not known about all of the things that have been going down?

 

And I don’t know, but I love Jesus’ response there in verse 19, because they are like “How do you not know about these things!?” and then Jesus says, “What things?” Like He doesn’t know, but I believe that He just wanted to give them the opportunity to continue to share their hearts and share it themselves first. And so, as we read in verses 19 and 20, they describe Jesus and what happened all the way to the crucifixion, but notice the beginning of verse 21.  It says they crucified Him “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel”. You see we have the big picture now, we have the whole Gospel spelled out for us at this point from the Bible, but these people within days of the crucifixion had come to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t the one who was coming to save them, because He was dead now. Most of these people thought that the one that was coming to save them was going to save them through politics and military might, but Jesus actually came to save them in a way that they didn’t understand yet and from the far greater threat of sin and death. And so, Jesus ends up putting them in their place a little bit in verses 25 and 26, but then He launches into a sermon through the Old Testament about Himself and man it would have been so cool to hear that.

 

But so much of the difficulty of this moment for those that were living through it was that they were expecting something different and had not yet understood that the reality was so much better than even what they were hoping for. And so, these guys, after probably a few hours of walking, got Jesus to sit down for a meal with them and when He broke the bread at this meal they immediately understood Who was sitting in front of them…and then He vanished. Talk about a pretty dramatic moment. And so, they looked at each other in verse 32 and said “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”. The truth of His presence, the truth of His words, the truth of the whole situation was now settling in on these men and they described it as their hearts burning within them or the words there meaning to be greatly moved by what they had heard. And so, like the Women earlier in the chapter, these men took off, even though it was very late in the day and headed miles back to Jerusalem by foot to report this to the disciples.

 

So, it was already late when they headed back on this 7-mile walk, so it must have been quite late when they made it back. But they find the disciples, and they say what we see in verse 34: “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” and they went on to share their story with them. Now we know how they responded earlier to the women that brought the same news, with doubt and calling it a bunch of nonsense. But it doesn’t tell us what exactly their response was to these guys or maybe they didn’t have enough time to respond before verse 36 happens. So, let’s keep following this.

 

 

Before we ever get to hear their response to the guys who ran back from Emmaus, Jesus Himself shows up in the room. And I would say that should officially lay to rest all the doubts, but…after Jesus showed up and says “Peace to you” in verse 36, these guys are now terrified because they think they are seeing a ghost. And there’s maybe some good reason for this as the Gospel of John’s account of this same moment makes very clear that all the doors are shut when Jesus suddenly shows up. So, He didn’t just walk into the room, He appeared supernaturally and these guys are scared and probably rightly so. But Jesus begins to talk with them and work past their fears, He encourages them to come and see Him, to touch Him, and to realize that it is in fact Him and not a ghost standing in front of them.

 

And it’s interesting because as they do this, verse 41 says “but while they still did not believe for joy” or as another translation says, “while they still could not believe it because of their joy and astonishment”. It almost has an idea of something being too good to be true. Like they were so wrapped up in the joy and emotion of what was happening that the reality hadn’t really settled in yet. And it’s actually good to see how Jesus handles this, because ultimately our foundations of what we believe can’t be set on just the emotions of a moment. Our foundations must be set in the truth. And so, Jesus asks for a bite to eat at the end of verse 41 and then in verse 44 He sits them down to once again teach a sermon on Himself through much of the Old Testament. And it says that He specifically opened their understanding to what exactly was going on. And lucky day for those guys from Emmaus, because they got to sit through another one of Jesus’ sermons in the same day. And again, we don’t get to hear this whole sermon either, but it looks like we do get to hear His wrap up, His conclusion, and really His application and we see that in verses 46 through 49. Let me read those one more time.

 

The “thus it was written” must refer back to all that He had just shared with them through the Old Testament, I’m sure absolutely proving to them that it was necessary for Him to come and suffer and die, but then rise again to life so that verse 47 would now be possible. And pay special attention to this in verse 47, it says “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem”. Until He did what He did, this wasn’t the case. Before there was a system of animal sacrifice and such that covered sin temporarily and was only really for the Jewish people. But in Christ, God made the ultimate sacrifice, a sacrifice capable of covering over the sins of ALL that would come to believe in Him. So, the call wasn’t to regular animal sacrifices for your sin any longer, the call now to everyone, from all peoples, from all nations, in all languages, is to believe in Jesus’s sacrifice, in His death for our sins, His burial, and in His resurrection. To turn away from our sin and living in sin and see and share Jesus as LORD GOD who has done these things for us so that we might have a real relationship with God and not be separated from Him forever by our sin. The word remission there in verse 47 means to cancel a debt. We all have a serious debt because of sin, but Jesus says I have done all of this to cancel that debt, if we will believe in Him and follow Him. He wanted His disciples to understand that the cross wasn’t just some unfortunate thing that happened to Him in the process, but it was an absolutely necessary part of God’s plan to redeem people from their sins. And then He gives the plan for the truth of the Gospel, for repentance, and redemption, and the canceled debt of sin to be carried forward to the whole world in Jesus’ name.

 

And as Jesus wraps up this sermon and since we’re so close to the end of the book, let’s look at these last few verses as Luke then records the last moments that these people physically shared with Jesus. Let’s read verses 50-53.

 

Now there is actually a pretty large time gap that Luke leaves here, as we know from things recorded in the other Gospels and in the book of Acts that Jesus was appearing to and engaging with people for 40 days after the resurrection. But Luke just brings us to the end of that time for this incredible moment where Jesus walks with His followers out to this place called Bethany, He blesses them, and then is miraculously carried up into heaven. And these people responded with great joy, praise, and blessing in light of all of this.

 

When we started this morning, I said that Good Friday could never really be good without what was coming next. What was coming next was the resurrection. We have to understand the importance of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins and that does truly make Good Friday good, but that’s only good in light of the fact that Jesus didn’t stay dead, because if He did then we would still be in the same place as these people that we read about, whose hopes were crushed at Jesus’ death.

 

 

Because if Jesus isn’t alive, then frankly everything that we believe and that we hope for falls apart. Paul really hammers this point home in passages like 1 Corinthians 15 and we won’t go there this morning, but he makes a great point that basically says if Christ isn’t risen, then why would any of us be? But it’s because He lives that we have real actual hope! Because our Savior is alive and He invites us to know Him, to believe in Him, to Trust Him. Jesus said in John 14, I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through Me. And if He was dead then the way wouldn’t be there, the truth would be that there is no hope, and there would be no new life, because new life, eternal life, real life is only found in Him. And I want to see this even more clearly, so let’s go to one other passage as we get ready to close out our morning today. Let’s go to Ephesians chapter 2.

 

 

This passage in verses 1 through 3, basically says that all of us start this life and start living this life in a spiritually dead state. Everyone does, because we’re all sinners, and a lot of people don’t like to talk about that, but it’s true. Sin is literally anything that we say, think, or do, that goes against what God would have us do and even if we just look at the ten commandments, we’re all guilty of some if not most of those. And that sin rips open a separation between us and God it kills any relationship from happening. That sin is a debt that we cannot pay. But Jesus came on the scene and said I’ll pay that debt for you through His death on the cross. Our sin deserved that death, but He took it for us. And that’s where verse 4 in Ephesians 2 picks up. We were spiritually dead, BUT GOD, but Jesus presents us with a free gift that changes everything. I asked the question a minute ago: Why do we make such a big deal about Easter and about the resurrection? And I want you to think about that question as I read verses 4 through 7 again.

 

Every single one of those points that are made there are completely reliant on the resurrection happening. None of those things work if Jesus is still dead. God made us alive together with Christ, BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE. And raised us up together, BECAUSE HE IS RISEN. And made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE AND SITS THERE. And shows us the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, again BECAUSE JESUS IS ALIVE. And as it continues there in Ephesians, we don’t earn salvation, it is a free gift from God and the gift is Jesus and what He has done for us. It’s not of our own work, it’s all Him. And then it says that we are His workmanship, or His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That means for us that believe in Jesus, God’s got work for us to do, because there is a lot of people in this world that don’t know about all of this yet. They desperately need to know, because it is truly awesome to be saved by the blood of Jesus, to have a restored relationship with the Almighty God, and to have real eternal hope because HE IS RISEN.