He is risen from the dead!

Luke 24:1-7 (NLT)

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.  They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.   As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.  The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground.  Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Remember what He told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that He would rise again on the third day.”

   

The main message of Easter is that the crucified Christ was not in the tomb on Easter morning.  The two men told the women that He was/is risen from the dead.  Who were the two men?  John 20:12 describes them as angels, that’s all we are told.  The word they used for “risen” was “egeiro” that literally meant “to arouse from the sleep of death”.  It is important to note that right after declaring that Christ has risen from the dead, the angels told the women to remember what He has told them earlier about His impending betrayal, death, and resurrection (see Matthew 16:21). 

Of all the descriptions about the meaning of Easter, my favorite is what Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, wrote in A Man Without Equal (New Life Publications, 1992):   

The Resurrection proved that Christ was divine. The fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross does not prove in itself He is God. Jesus proved His deity by fulfilling the prophecies of His death and by His return from the grave (Romans 1:4).

The Resurrection proved Christ's power to forgive sin. The Bible asserts, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17). By rising from the dead, Jesus proved His authority and power to break the bonds of sin and to assure forgiveness and eternal life to all who accept His gift of salvation.

The Resurrection revealed Christ's power over death (Romans 6:9). The Resurrection secured our victory over death as well and "lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 2:6).

The Resurrection defeated God's enemy. From the moment of his original rebellion until the day of the Cross, the devil fought viciously and cunningly to overthrow the kingdom of God. Satan must have thought he had dealt the final and decisive blow in this age-old war. But this was the devil's most serious miscalculation. The Cross was heaven's triumph. And when Jesus Christ arose, the power of sin and death was forever shattered. Because of the Resurrection, Christians need never fear Satan or death again.

Who can read these words of Bill Bright, along with the biblical references, and not be moved and convinced about the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?  What convinces you the most that Jesus Christ is resurrected from the dead?  Is there any event in history that is more significant than what happened on Easter Sunday?  How does the resurrection of Jesus give you hope and peace as you reflect on this reality? 

“The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.” - Henry Morris

Crucify Him

Matthew 27:22-23 (NIV)

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked.  They all answered, “Crucify Him!”  “Why?  What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate.  But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” 

Every time I think of crucifixion I am horrified.  The history of humankind is filled with unbelievably horrible execution methods, but crucifixion might be the most horrible.  Some believe that since Jesus was being sacrificed for all the sins of the world, the mode of suffering and death had to be equal to the awfulness, evil and contempt of sin.  It’s just too horrible and cruel to comprehend.

Many years ago, during a Sunday morning Bible class, I chose to read C. Truman Davis M.D. “A Medical Description of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ” that you can easily find on the internet.  The description, while not sensationalized, was still so shocking that one man came up to me afterwards and berated me for daring to expose those in my class to such awful detail.  While I still don’t believe that I did anything wrong, I never shared that description again. 

Of course, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” exposed millions of people to the visual brutality that our Lord experienced and how He suffered what many call the most cruel and most humiliating form of punishment ever devised.  As humiliating and horrible as movies and descriptions of crucifixion are, none of them even dare to show that victims of crucifixion were naked, a thought that abhors even the most unperturbed mind.  All this makes it all the more amazing that God in the form of the Son would allow Himself to be sacrificed in such a cruel and humiliating way for the sins of the world.  Also, all the horror of crucifixion should remind you of the grievousness of sin in the God’s sight.  As Dr. Davis concluded, “Thus we have seen a glimpse of the epitome of evil which men can exhibit toward man -- and toward God. This is not a pretty sight and is apt to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have a sequel: A glimpse of the infinite mercy of God toward man -- the miracle of the atonement and the expectation of Easter morning!”  Think hard about this.      

Why did people want to crucify Christ?  What did He do that deserved suffering and death?  Nothing, other than anger the Jewish leaders for exposing their hypocrisy.  In turn the Jewish leaders incited the rest of the crowd.  Yes, it was meant for Christ to die, but His death also implicated hypocritical leaders and clueless followers.  You must evaluate yourself both to make sure as a leader (business, family, neighborhood, society, church, etc) that you are not a hypocrite and as a follower of other leaders that you are not a victim of false teaching and deceptive leadership. 

Deeper insight into the meaning of communion

Luke 22:14-20 (NIV)

When the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.  For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you.   For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

The story of the Last Supper is so well-known by Christians and even unbelievers that most of us hardly pay attention to passages like this.   When we think of the Last Supper, we think of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous 1498 painting (the original displayed at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy), most recently popularized as a central theme in Dan Brown’s controversial book “The Da Vinci Code”.  This passage (and similar ones in Matthew 26:17-30 and Mark 14:17-25) serves as the basis for communion celebrated in church services and other religious ceremonies. 

Several truths are worth remembering from the gospel stories about the Last Supper:

·  The model Jesus gave about giving thanks before eating a meal.

·  The covenant Jesus established between Himself and all mankind that is commemorated each time we participate in communion.

·  The eating of bread and drinking of wine (juice) that represents His sacrificial death for the forgiveness of sins of anyone/everyone who believes in what He did.

·  The importance Jesus placed on partaking in communion to remind you of Him and what He did for you. 

Jesus said that the bread represents His body given for others.  Sometimes, if you listen carefully to the communion leader’s words, he will say that the bread represents Jesus’ body “broken” for you.  None of the gospel stories about communion use the word “broken” in relationship to Jesus’ body although it is used to describe the bread being broken.  However, some translations of I Cor 11:24 will use the word “broken” where Paul is writing about The Lord’s Supper.  Jesus’ body was not broken during/after His crucifixion.  To hasten death of a crucified person, his legs would be broken that subsequently prevented the ability of that person to push himself upward, thereby chest muscles would collapse and cause suffocation.  When the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves to hasten their deaths and then came to the cross of Jesus, Jesus was already dead so they did not break His legs.  John 19:36 quotes Psalm 34:20 “Not a bone of Him shall be broken”. 

 

What did Jesus and His disciples actually eat and drink at the Last Supper?  Well, this passage mentions bread and more modern translations use “cup of wine” instead of “cup” and “wine” instead of “fruit of the vine”.  Arguments exist on both sides that the wine was or was not alcoholic.  It can only be conjectured what other foods where eaten that night although likely they were foods eaten during Passover meals that included lamb, eggs, bitter herbs, charoseth (mixture of almonds, apple, wine, sugar, and cinnamon), karpar (mixture of celery, greens, and parsley) and salt water.

“When the hour came” has significant meaning.  In Jesus’ earlier ministry, the Bible states that “My time is not yet at hand” (John 7:6), “My time has not yet fully come” (John 2:4, 7:10) and “His hour had not yet come” (John 7:30 and 8:20).  Both in Jesus’ life and in your life, there is a time and purpose for everything if you simply put your faith in God to work things out.  God’s timing is always perfect.  He appointed the time for Jesus to die for our sins and He appoints a time for everything (Eccles 3:1-8).  We humans always want to run ahead of God and allow the “tyranny of the urgent” to dictate our lives.  Yet, by allowing the Lord to control your life, everything that is supposed to happen in your life will happen according to God’s timing, not yours.  How much stress in life would be eliminated if people had this attitude as a result of strong trust in the Lord?

Pray about God’s timing in your life.  Ask Him for more patience to wait on Him to work out His plan for your life.  Ask Him to help you be more aware and discerning of His promptings to wait or to act.  

“Never run before God gives you His direction.  If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding.  Whenever there is doubt----wait.”  Oswald Chambers, Jan 4 devotional in his book My Utmost for His Highest.   

“Sometimes God doesn't tell us His plan because we wouldn't believe it anyway”. -- Carlton Pearson

Peter's denial of Christ represents all of us at one time or another

Mark 14:30 (NIV)

“Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know Me”

Who does Peter represent in His denial of the Lord?  All of us!  Yes, you!  Why?  Because each of us, including you, has in some way or many different ways, been false in your relationship and friendship with Christ.  Peter was the lead disciple, the example, the one who usually spoke up first, the one to whom Jesus likely talked to more than the others, who still at the end of Jesus’ life on earth dissociated himself from being faithful to Christ in the face of criticism and danger.  Peter also represents the hypocrisy in all of us at times, saying one thing, doing another.  Peter “insisted” to Jesus that he would die with Him (Mark 14:31).  When you read this statement you can sense his self-confidence that he would not be afraid to die with Jesus. We are like this, believing that our love for and faith in Jesus are so great that we would be sufficiently brave to face our deaths for His sake.  Yet Peter wasn’t that prepared and quickly got into something way over his head where he was not strong enough to resist or fight.  Sometimes this can/will happen to you too.

What Peter did not have within Him when he denied Jesus was the indwelling Holy Spirit.  After being filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4ff), Peter then was brave and bold in preaching about Christ without any fear of persecution.  Indeed, Peter was eventually crucified too, with tradition indicating that he asked to be crucified upside down because he did not deserve to die in the same way as his Lord did.

It is interesting that Peter was probably prepared to face questions from Roman soldiers about knowing Jesus, but being asked a question by a little girl somehow destroyed his confidence.  Remember, Peter drew his sword and attacked a Roman guard at the Garden of Gethsemane.   The question from a little girl blindsided him and this is an example of how Satan attacks you.  You prepare yourself to handle temptations that you expect, but succumb to other temptations or a subtle way a temptation that you are weak against attacks you.  Like Peter, once you are blindsided and commit sin, you are in trouble and will continue to sin and fail.  

Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times before the cock crowed twice.  The word used for deny means to disown.  Peter not only revealed that he did not know Jesus, he refused to admit that he had anything to do with Him.  A remarkable and tragic betrayal after being Jesus’ “right hand man” for three years.  Also, it probably was not an animal (rooster) crowing, but a trumpet blowing that marked the changing of the guard in the city.   From 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the guard was changed every three hours, so the trumpet (Greek word for cock here is “alektorophonia” meaning “cockcrow”) would blow twice over the time period between the time Jesus was arrested and when he was taken away from the crowds to be beaten. 

Although Peter failed in courage to admit his relationship to Jesus, Jesus knew that this would happen and still declared that Peter would be the first leader of the church after Jesus’ ascension (Matthew 16:17-18).  Jesus knew that Peter was not a total failure. This should be a reassuring truth for you.  Jesus sees in you not your failures and, at times even your abandonment of your faith in Him, but sees you for your future potential as His child and as His servant.  Indeed, while you might think of Peter as a person who denied Jesus, remember that Peter became the main leader of the early church that is clear from reading the book of Acts as well as his own two letters in the Bible.

How does this teaching on Peter encourage you as you think about your own life?  You might tend to focus more on your failures than successes, but realize that Jesus sees through your failures and ultimately will enable you to be victorious (Romans 8:37, I Corinthians 15:57).  Through the example of Peter you likely can relate to times in your life when you have been caught off guard and let your Savior down or not given Him proper priority.  Yet, you do not need to beat yourself up over such failures.  Read what Peter himself wrote in I Peter 5:8-10.  What hope, resolve and encouragement does this give you?