Easter 2010 – Resurrection Revolution

Easter 2010 – Resurrection Revolution

April 4th, 2010 (AM). By: Rod Earnshaw

Rod Earnshaw delivers a message for Easter Sunday morning entitled “Resurrection Revolution” from John 20:1-23.

Did you hear the story of Tracey Hermanstorfer this Christmas?  You may not remember her name – though Hermanstorfer is a memorable name – but perhaps you’ll remember the story of the mother who died during childbirth on Christmas eve?

Tracey – a mother of two – was in labour on Christmas Eve at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, in Colorado when she stopped breathing and her heart stopped.

Doctors tried to revive her, but they couldn’t do it.

They tried to save her unborn child – they delivered him by emergency Caesarean Section, but he was born dead.

Her Doctor, Dr Stephanie Martin said: “She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn’t breathing, and the baby was, it was basically limp.

In short they were both dead.

Tracey’s husband Mike said “I was holding her hand when we realized she was gone.  My entire life just rolled out.”

‘my legs went out from underneath me.  I had everything in the world taken from me.’

Can you imagine how he must have felt at that moment?  What a blow: One minute he’d been looking forward to the birth of his third child, and the next he’d lost not just the child, but his wife as well.  And to rub salt into the wounds it was Christmas Eve – how could he tell his two boys that they’d lost their mother?  How could he face Christmas?

And just when he was sinking down into the depths of despair, the doctors managed to revive both his wife and his still-born son.

Despair turned to joy.

Mike said “I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me.”

If you can begin to comprehend what they went through, then you might be able to get some insight into the first Easter.

Like Mike Hermanstorfer the disciples had everything taken away from them.  Like expecting parents they had lived and breathed Jesus and his mission – not just for nine months, but three whole years.  They were sure he was the Messiah, they’d seen him do things no man could do.  They’d heard his teaching.  They’d seen him demonstrate power and rule in ways they couldn’t ignore or explain away.  They were absolutely convinced that he was the Messiah and they were waiting for him to bring in his glorious kingdom.

And then the unthinkable happened.

He was torn away from them.  Not by an accident, or a complication, but by cold blooded, state sanctioned murder.

No other word for it really.

The priests and teachers of the law arrested him, tried him in a show court and took him to the governor.  There the very people who’d worshipped him just a week earlier turned on him and bayed for his blood.  His enemies whipped them into a frenzy and even though he was declared innocent, he was still sentenced to death.

And there was no high noon last minute escape for Jesus.  He was hung on a cross until dead, certified dead even – they stuck a spear into his side just to make sure.

NO, there could be no mistake, Jesus had died.  They’d barely had time to bury him before the Sabbath started, and now he lay dead in a tomb, and all their hopes and dreams had been crucified up there with him.  They were lying dead in that tomb too – what hope could they have now?  The best they could hope for was to escape being rounded up and put to death themselves.  So much for the Messiah.  So much for the coming kingdom.

They were absolutely devastated; shattered; broken.

And all this happened at the time of the Passover festival.  The great celebration of the birth of their nation out of slavery by God’s mighty hand.  But where was God in all this?  Where was his mighty salvation now?

That’s what the first Easter was like for the disciples.  Empty.  Terrifying.  Confusing.  Inexplicable.

But it didn’t end like that. Like the Hermanstorfers their despair was turned to joy.  And that’s where we pick the story up this morning.  Jesus has been crucified.  Jesus has been buried.  They’ve suffered through a long Sabbath rest.  Now the Sabbath is finally over.

John 20 picks up the story at the very instant the Sabbath comes to an end.  In verse 1 we read that it was early, while it was still dark, that Mary went out to the tomb.  I guess she hadn’t slept a wink.  I guess she’d been anxiously waiting to get going at the earliest possible opportunity.  She went to mourn – mourn the loss of a friend, and much more, but what she found when she got there turned everything around.  By the end of the day she’d be laughing – like Mike Hermanstorfer, everything was taken away and then everything was given back.  Only in this case, they were given so much more than they lost.

Let’s have a closer look at John 20 – and I want to show you three things that the resurrection changed forever.  Those three things will be my three points this morning, and they are:

1. The Fact of the Resurrection Convinced Confused and Deflated Disciples;
2. The Risen Jesus announced peace with God
3. The Fact of the Resurrection led to the world wide mission of the church

Let’s start with the first point:

1. The Fact of the Resurrection Convinced Confused and Deflated Disciples;

This is the main line of the story in this chapter of John.  This is perhaps the most outstanding miracle in the Bible, and for many, the hardest to believe.  But it is absolutely central to the Christian faith.  What made the disciples believe that the impossible happened?  What made them believe a dead man could live again?

Well it’s worth saying that the disciples weren’t expecting Jesus to rise from the dead – they didn’t make it up to fit in with some idea of what the Messiah was supposed to be like.  They’d given up on that dream when Jesus was executed.  Have a quick look through the passage with me:

1. Verse 1: Mary goes to the tomb while it is very early – the very earliest she could go after the Sabbath.  Why so eager to get to the tomb – because she thinks that’s where Jesus is.
2. Verse 2: When she see’s the empty tomb she runs, she’s shocked, confused, frightened – she goes to get help!  When she find them she tells Peter and John that the Lord has been taken, and says ‘I don’t know where they have put him’; that’s how we talk about luggage or possessions – she’s not thinking of Jesus as a person, but an object, just a lifeless body, an empty shell.
3. Verse 9: that they didn’t know the scripture that it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead (fits with the behaviour we see)
4. Verse 10: even after what they’ve seen the disciples go back to their own homes – they’re still not expecting anything more to happen, can only make more trouble for themselves by sticking together – suggests to me they think the authorities may be out to get them (in mourning want to hang around with people who are sharing your grief)
5. Verse 11: Mary goes back to the tomb to grieve, she’s there weeping; she still doesn’t think that Jesus has risen from the dead; she’s still convinced he’s gone.
6. Verse 12,13: even the appearance of angels can’t give her any comfort – she’s convinced that the body has been stolen and she’s desperate to find it.
7. Verse 13 and 15: Mary’s still talking about Jesus as a dead body, an object ‘where have you put him’
8. Verse 19: even when they begin to get the idea that Jesus might be alive they’re still absolutely petrified – even as they gather to try and figure out what’s going on they keep the door locked out of fear
9. Verse 20: Jesus has to show them his hands and his side before they rejoice

All of this is entirely consistent with people who have suddenly lost their leader in devastating circumstances; people who’re convinced that all they’d hoped for had come to nothing.  They weren’t spiritualists or primitives, they knew that death is the end and they didn’t expect anything different for Jesus.

But the things that they saw for themselves convinced them that the impossible had actually happened.

Let’s have a second look through the passage and consider the evidence as they encountered it:

1. Verse 1: The tomb was opened – the stone rolled back from the entrance.  Something has happened, but unclear what…
2. Verse 1 and 5-9: Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb – when they looking in, and later went in, there was no body there. Whatever happened it involved Jesus’ body.
3. Verse 5: His grave clothes were where they had been left – so i) grave robbers hadn’t got in and taken him, because the clothes were much more valuable than a body! and ii) his body has changed, he left the tomb without taking the grave clothes with him.
4. Verse 7: the burial cloth that would have been over Jesus’ face was also in the tomb, sitting off to the side of the other grave clothes – what does that prove?  I don’t know, but it is just the sort of detail that might stick in your head if you were a witness to something amazing like this.
5. Verse 14: Jesus himself turned up and he was there walking and talking.  The earlier evidence might have been ambiguous, but there’s not a lot of room for doubt here – this is the man himself, not dead, but walking and talking.
6. Verse 17: Jesus tells Mary don’t hold onto me, or more literally ‘stop clinging to me’ – she was physically able to hold him, but couldn’t hold onto him because they had work to do – he had to go and she had to go to the disciples to tell them he had risen.
7. Verse 19: In the upper room Jesus showed them his hands and his side – the wounds of his execution.  He was the same one who had died, not just a thought of him, not a feeling of empowerment or unique presence, but the actually hands that had been pierced, the wounds that had killed him.

These were the physical evidences that the disciples were confronted with. They weren’t expecting Jesus to rise – they didn’t have any idea that the OT predicted it, they didn’t have any reason to make a resurrection up.

They were in mourning, grieving their friend and leader.

They were afraid, convinced that all their hopes had been dashed.

But Jesus’ body disappeared.  His grave was open and there was no one inside, just the linen cloths he’d been wrapped in.  And before they’d been able to come up with any theories or explanations, while they were still convinced they were in mortal danger – Jesus turns up in the flesh.  Walking, talking, bearing the scars of crucifixion.

They knew dead men don’t rise – but they were convinced by the facts that confronted them – this dead man had risen.

Dead men don’t rise, but Jesus rose.  There’s something unique and significant going on here.  The disciples were confronted with the resurrection as a fact.  And the risen Jesus came with a message.  That’s my second point:

1. The Risen Jesus announced peace with God

Did you notice this when Jesus was speaking to Mary?  Have a look at verse 17:

John 20:17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them: `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

We could easily miss what’s going on here.  Look at the way Jesus talks about the disciples – they’re his brothers.  He goes to his Father – and they’re included in the family; he goes to his God who is also their God.

Jesus isn’t just identifying which God he’s talking about, and he isn’t boasting.  He’s very deliberately including Mary and the disciples in the close relationship he has with the Father.  He’s signalling that something has changed by his death and resurrection he can now call them brothers, and they can now call God Father.

In John chapter 10 verse 31 the Jewish authorities tried to kill Jesus for blasphemy because he called God his Father.  They rightly understood that God is so great, so holy, so high above his creation that it was no less than blasphemy to call God Father.  But it wasn’t blasphemy for Jesus, because he is God’s son.  And now he declares that his special privilege has been extended to those who followed him.  As well as worshipping him as God, they could approach God as Father, and Jesus as brother.  This is no less than a revolution in man’s relationship with God.
But it’s a little cryptic.  We could have missed it.  And to make sure that we don’t Jesus makes it very, very clear when he reveals himself to his disciples.

Look at verse 19:

John 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.  ²¹ Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

‘Peace be with you’.  That could be just a greeting – like saying G’day – short hand for ‘I wish you a good day’.  But it’s much more than that.  Jesus is doing more than wishing them a quiet afternoon, he’s declaring a change in their status before God.  Before there was a break between God and all mankind, but Jesus has won peace for us.  Peace be with you.

What sort of peace is made clear in verse 22 as Jesus symbolically breathes out the holy spirit on them.  This peace with God is a peace of intimate relationship.

I know that sounds a bit wet, but it’s not, I just can’t find a better way to put it.  The Holy Spirit is the bond that united Jesus to his Father in perfect unity.  Now in the same way we those who follow him will also be united to the Father.  That is a staggering, outrageous promise – and one that he continues to keep to millions of Christians all around the world.  All Jesus’ followers are united to him and to God the Father by the Holy Spirit.  We’re as close to him as we can be – he lives in us.  This is what he promised his disciples before he died:

John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  ²⁰ On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  … ²³ “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  … ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

They didn’t understand it at the time, but Jesus told them he would be taken away by death, but after death he would come to them, and he and his Father would make their home in them.  They would do this is by the Holy Spirit, the Counsellor, living in them.

This is the Peace Jesus gives his followers – peace with God, not just the end of war, the end of conflict (with perhaps a simmering hatred remaining under the surface) – this is the peace of a new and beautiful relationship, a closeness, a loving fellowship.

And how is this peace achieved?  Well it’s no coincidence that Jesus declares Peace be with you and then shows them the wounds in his hands and his side.  There’s a lot more to be said about this but suffice to say that it was Jesus’ sacrifice of himself – willingly, in perfect obedience to the Father’s will, in accordance with his own plan from before all things, in our place for our sin, that paid our penalty and removed our guilt and so opened the way for real peace with God.  And it’s that very sacrifice that the wounds on his hands and his feet remind the disciples of as he shows them to his disciples.

It’s as if he shows them his hands and his side and says by my wounds you have been healed, in the words of Isaiah 53:5:

Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

There’s real depths here, not least the depth of God’s love for us that he would send his son to endure those things on our behalf.  I’m going to have a lot more to say about this on the weekend away, but for now we need to notice that the resurrection declares and demonstrates that Jesus’ sacrifice was acceptable to God – the penalty for sin is death, and he has paid the price in full, otherwise he couldn’t have risen again.  And since he has paid the price in full, we can enjoy peace with God.

So finally there is one other thing to notice from these verses:

1. The Fact of the Resurrection led to the world wide mission of the church

In verse 21 Jesus sent his disciples out to share the good news of his death and resurrection, the good news that there is peace with God through him.

That’s the message we’re here to tell.  That message brought this church into life.  That message has given new life to everyone here who believes it.   If you don’t know what it means to have peace with God through Jesus, I can tell you it’s the best thing ever.  Come and talk to me after about it – or come to our weekend away and hear more about Jesus’ death and it’s meaning, or come to the Christianity Explored Taster Session and sign up for the course.  But don’t miss this opportunity to make peace with God and to come to know him.

And if you’re already a Christian?  Well today is a day of Joy.  Remember Mike Hermanstorfer?  His wife and his child were cruelly snatched away from him.  But then they came back.  Miracle of miracles they were dead, but now they’re alive.  And we’ve seen even better things than that.   Jesus didn’t die an accidental death, he died a deliberate death, a sacrificial death – his death was our death.  So when Jesus rose from the dead his resurrection was our resurrection.  Because he has new life, he gives life to us.  So we rejoice that Jesus is risen, and know that we have peace with God, new life in Jesus, and eternal life to come.  We’re united with the Lord of all.  And we have a message of new life and peace with God.  That message should be spilling out of us where ever we go.