Easter 2023

Read Matthew 17:22-23

 

You probably didn’t think that we would be back in Matthew 17 this morning. But right where we left off last week, Jesus was once again having a little heart to heart discussion with His disciples. This isn’t even the first time that He has brought these things up. But as it says there, as they were staying in Galilee, Jesus looks at His disciples and tells them.

 

 

Jesus said that He was going to die, but then right on the heels of that, He also said that He wasn’t going to stay dead for long. Did they hear that? Did they get it? Did they understand what He was saying?

 

One thing to think about in this passage, is that it comes immediately after where we were at last week. Last week when Jesus had to step in and deal with this demon because His disciples weren’t able to. And when that happened, Jesus pointed to a problem, and He identified that problem for them. He told them they were struggling with unbelief. They must have believed, but apparently their faith wasn’t perfect, there must still have been parts of them that doubted things. And so that’s what Jesus had just been talking to them, about right before this.

 

And so maybe they are hearing what He is saying, but maybe it’s a struggle, maybe their faith is still shaky, maybe there is doubt still creeping in when He shares these things. They must believe in Who He is at this point, but rising from the dead? Is He for real? Can He really do that?

 

It’s really easy to believe that someone can die, it doesn’t take any faith really to accept that one. But maybe in this struggle of faith it’s just really hard to accept or believe that what Jesus is saying is actually possible. The reality is that what Jesus is saying isn’t possible at all naturally in our world, dead things don’t just come back to life naturally, especially after days of being dead. But what Jesus is telling them requires something that goes beyond logic, and beyond the natural, and beyond our normal expectations. It’s something that requires faith in the supernatural power of God to be possible.

 

Friday night we gathered together in remembrance of Good Friday. On that day in particular, we stop, and we remember, and we appreciate, and we share, and we worship … because Jesus did die … like He told His disciples that He was going to. And not just a death for no reason, not just a death because people didn’t like Him. He chose the path of death, because His death and His blood were the payment needed to free us from sin’s slavery and judgement and death. He went through an absolutely horrible day, all the way to death on a cross to save us. A horrible day for Him, that is now Good Friday for us.

 

On that day, He was nailed to a Roman cross, and there He gave up His life to save us, and they buried Him in a nearby tomb.

 

Jesus was dead. But that’s not where the story ends. But as we see the disciple’s response here in Matthew, and as we will see more of the story here in a minute, it seems like they were struggling to see past the death, to understand what’s truly possible by God’s power.

 

Friday night we read the account of Jesus’ death, and then Jesus was buried, and then Jesus’ friends were mourning the loss. But remember what He said! He said that He wasn’t going to stay dead. And why is this so important? Why is the resurrection so important? What would change if Jesus was still dead?

 

If Jesus were still dead…

How in the world could we have a relationship with Him?

How could He invite us to this salvation?

How could He lead, for us to follow?

If eternal life is rooted in His life, which it is, how would we ever get it if He wasn’t living?

Where would our hope be?

What would be our purpose?

Would any of this even make sense with a still dead savior?

 

The New Testament is all about life IN CHRIST. IN JESUS. IN THE LIVING JESUS.

 

So often when talking about Jesus, the conversation is left at His death on the cross. And that moment is so important. But if that is where we leave the story, then all hope is dead with Him. God’s promises, our hope, our life, our future, everything is wrapped up in the requirement that Jesus didn’t stay dead. He did actually die, but just as He said He would, three days later, He walked out of that tomb alive and well.

 

Jesus told His disciples that this is exactly what was going to happen. But in their sorrow, maybe they were struggling to see it, or believe it. Maybe as we’re sitting here today, maybe we still struggle to believe this part of it.

 

BUT WE NEED TO SEE IT AND WE NEED TO BELIEVE IT

 

Jesus’ Resurrection is the moment of total victory, it validates everything to be true, it validates Him, if He is not risen, then everything falls apart.

 

Paul explains this to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 15 and I want to go look at this together.

 

Without this one truth, without this one event, without Jesus being alive at this moment, Paul says that our faith would basically be pointless. It wouldn’t mean anything if Jesus were still dead. And if it didn’t mean anything and if Jesus were still dead, then WE WOULD STILL BE IN OUR SINS and have absolutely no hope for salvation. Paul says that if this were all the case, then we should be pitied really for believing in something that doesn’t amount to anything past this life. But that’s not at all the case.

 

And we could go so far down this path, but the simple point here is this:

 

 

That’s what makes this day so important and it’s why we celebrate, and it’s why we worship Him today.

 

Because Jesus IS RISEN and thankfully, sitting here today, we have the huge benefit at this point in history of going and reading the account of it happening. And we’re going to do that together.

 

Read John 20

 

I want us to recognize something right off the bat here. We see Mary Magdalene in verse 1 heading out to the tomb that Jesus was in. But all of the disciples weren’t out there, they weren’t keeping watch at the tomb, they weren’t even going right now. Jesus had told them that He would be raised up after three days, but apparently that didn’t move them enough to be out there waiting for Him. I think if you truly believed that that was going to happen you would probably all be out there as a welcoming party, or a welcome back from the dead party. Which I believe probably points to the weakness of their faith in this area.

 

But even Mary wasn’t out here expecting the resurrection. And Mary wasn’t alone, the other Gospels have at least three other women out there with her. But when they got there and found the stone moved and Jesus’ body gone, it wasn’t, “Yes, He rose from the dead!”, it was “oh, no, someone stole His body!”.

 

And so, Mary runs back and finds Peter and John and tells them that someone had taken Jesus’ body and these guys take off running as well back towards the tomb. It sounds like John saw this as a little bit of a competition and makes it very clear that he beat Peter back to the tomb here. Which is kind of funny, but God let him have that one in here. But they make it to the tomb, and Peter and John go look around, they see where Jesus’ body had been, they see that the linens that He had been wrapped in are folded up and put together. They see these things and then what does it say at the end of verse 8? It says:

 

 

The light bulb turns on in this moment, things start to click together, the reality of what has happened is now coming into focus, and He believes.

 

This is something that all of us have to deal with. We can hear the truth. Jesus had already told them these truths. But just hearing or just liking or just thinking it’s interesting isn’t enough.

 

 

This was that moment for John. John just references himself in that statement, but it probably was for Peter as well. Jesus Himself had told them the information of these events several times before they happened, but it wasn’t until this point where true belief set in. And maybe we’re sitting here today and we’re like … well this is a bigger ask of me than it was for them. They got to walk into the tomb, they got to see these things with their own two eyes, I don’t get to have that. If that’s where you are at right now, I can understand that, that is understandable, you’re not alone in wrestling through these things. These guys were obviously going through that as well. And there’s other cool things that happen in this chapter and we’re not going to look at every part of it this morning, but I want to jump down to verses 24 through 29 again. Because this is another guy that is struggling with that same thought process.

 

Read John 20:24-29

 

Coming into these verses, Peter and John had obviously seen the empty tomb, Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene in verses 11-18, in verses 19-23 Jesus miraculously appears to most of the disciples in a closed room where they were gathered, but one of the disciples named Thomas wasn’t there for any of these things. He hasn’t had the chance to see what the others have seen. In verse 25 all of the other disciples tell Thomas “We have seen the Lord!”.

 

But then Thomas responds, and maybe this is where some of us are at right now. He says in verse 25 still:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus then makes one more statement to Thomas in verse 29:

 

“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”