"He Is Risen" Sermon Luke 24:1-12

"He is Risen"
[Luke 24:1-12]
April 8, 2007 Second Reformed Church

Jesus had been crucified, and He had died. The Roman officers made sure He was dead before they released the Body for burial. They even shoved a spear up through His Side. Pilate was not about to release the Body of Jesus if He was not fully and completely dead.

And he wasn't about to allow any of His crazy followers to stage a resurrection, so he had a stone rolled over the entrance of the tomb, and he sealed the tomb with the royal seal, and he posted guards to keep anyone from attempting to disturb the tomb and the Body.

So, we read in this morning's text that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women went to the tomb on the morning of the third day. Why? They went to finish embalming Jesus. He had died at the end of the day and had to be quickly put into the tomb so as not to violate the Sabbath. Now it was the morning of the third day, the first day of the week, and they had returned to the tomb where they had seen Him buried, and they went, expecting to find a dead Man. They went, expecting to find a lifeless Body which needed to be embalmed.

The disciples also believed and expected that the women would find the dead Body of Jesus in the tomb. They were in hiding, fearful that the Pharisees and the Romans might now come after them. After all, they had taken their Leader and killed Him, and He was now dead in the tomb.

What is your expectation this morning? Is Jesus dead? Are you here to celebrate the beginning of Spring? Are you here to celebrate the Easter Bunny and his invention of candy? What is your expectation?

The women arrived at the tomb, carrying their spices and oils, and they were shocked, and then terrified. They fell on their faces, not knowing what had happened or how to respond. The guards were passed out on the ground, the seal had been broken and the stone was rolled away, and two angels, who look like men, appeared, blazing with the Glory of God.

And the angels asked them two questions:

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?" He is risen! Why are you looking for Someone Who is alive in a tomb? You don't find living people in tombs.

"[Don't you] remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise?" He is risen! Don't you remember what He told you? Why didn't you expect Him to rise from the dead? Why did you expect to find a dead Body? Don't you remember?

"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised" (Matthew 16:21).

"As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, 'The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day'" (Matthew 17:22-23).

"And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day'" (Matthew 20:17-19).

What wasn't clear?

So the women all ran back to the disciples and told them that "He is risen."

But the disciples also expected Jesus to be dead; they thought He was a dead Body in the tomb as well -- that was their expectation. So Peter and John ran to the tomb, and they confirmed what the women heard and saw: He is risen.

And in the days to follow, Jesus would be seen, touched, and eat with over three hundred people, who became eyewitnesses to His Resurrection.

"Well," the sceptics say, "that's the story. But who knows if it really happened. Maybe He wasn't really dead. Or perhaps they just made the story up later."

There are a variety of insane theories about Jesus not really being dead. So consider, if you will, how all of these theories must go: after being beaten and tortured all night, crucified, stabbed, losing massive amounts of blood, and seemingly dying, He was placed in a tomb, with a stone rolled in front of it, and guards to keep anyone from removing the Body. Once everyone left, Jesus unwound the burial clothes, pushed the massive stone up and away from the tomb, from the inside, overpowered the Roman guards and/or convinced them to lie for Him, and then He disappeared into the wind, leaving His disciples to believe that He rose from the dead -- a belief that they so firmly believed, that for two thousand years now, they have been willing to be tortured and put to dead.

We have a choice, brothers and sisters, to believe that Christianity is the biggest and most cruel hoax ever perpetrated -- in which case -- somewhere there is real proof, and we ought to find it and expose this lie. Or, everything Jesus said was true.

Whatever expectation we come with, we are faced with the announcement that "He is risen." This is either the most horrifying blasphemy ever -- or it is true. There is no other choice.

There are many today who want to make Christianity some pedestrian moral system that teaches us to be good people. But the fact of the matter is that Jesus taught again and again that He is God.

If President Bush insisted that he is God Incarnate -- or if Senator Clinton demanded that we believe that she is God and worship her and look to her as the only way to salvation -- and masses of people believed -- would we say that such a thing was just teaching people how to be good and moral citizens? Would we say, "O, Lord God, Mr. Bush, you are a good man. Mighty Hillary, our Savior, you have saved a village by your good teaching"? No! We would say that this is either the greatest insanity ever perpetrated, or it is the truth. Someone who claims to be God, Himself, is not just a nice, normal person. He is either over-the-edge nuts, or he is God.

And we can't sit on the sidelines. We can't not make a decision based on the evidence. Saying that we don't take a stand -- that we don't have an opinion -- is the same as saying, "I don't believe."

If the claims of Christianity are true, if He is risen, then we know that Jesus has taken God's Wrath against us for our sins on Himself -- our debt has been paid -- and we have received His Righteous Life credited to our accounts. And we also know, if it's true, if He is risen, then we who believe will likewise be raised.

Paul puts it this way: "Now if Christ is proclaimed as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that this is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testify about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" (I Corinthians 15:12-23).

I don't know what expectation you came with this morning. But I say to you: He is risen. Jesus is risen from the dead, just as He said. If you don't believe that is true, then also understand that you cannot say that Christianity is a good religion. If it's not true, Christianity is a horrible, deceitful, blasphemous religion. But if you do believe He is risen, if you believe in Him, you are forgiven, and you also shall be raised on the last day.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we gather to celebrate the Resurrection of Your Son, Jesus, the Incarnate God. We thank You for the witness and the evidence that He is risen. We ask that He would make Himself known to each one here this morning, and that each one here would honestly and surely respond to the declaration of the angels: He is risen. For it is in the Name of the Living Son of Man, Jesus, we pray, Amen.