He is Risen; He is Risen Indeed!

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason,  Easter Sunday, 2003

The Apostle Paul had this to say to believers like us in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians:

Paul’s prayer is that we might personally know and experience that kind of power…resurrection power in our lives as Christians. It is available. It can be ours. It is the kind of power God exercised when He raised Jesus from the dead. As we begin to consider the resurrection of Jesus and it’s implications for us let’s consider this:

Jesus promised his followers would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8). The question for us today is this: Is that kind of power manifest in our lives today?

In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, "How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God." When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.

Power was available but not accessed because of a loose connection. This was certainly an inconvenience to Herbert Jackson.

In his book Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee describes a preaching mission to an island off the South China coast. There were seven in the ministering group, including a sixteen-year-old new convert whom he calls Brother Wu. The island was fairly large, containing about 6,000 homes. Nee had a contact there, an old schoolmate of his who was headmaster of the village school, but he refused to house the group when he discovered they had come to preach the Gospel. Finally, they found lodging with a Chinese herbalist, who became their first convert.

Preaching seemed quite fruitless on the island, and Nee discovered it was because of the dedication of the people there to an idol they called Ta-wang. They were convinced of his power because on the day of his festival and parade each year the weather was always near perfect.

"When is the procession this year?" young Wu asked a group that had gathered to hear them preach.

"It is fixed for January 11th at 8 in the morning," was the reply.

"Then," said the new convert, "I promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th."

At that there was an outburst of cries from the crowd: "That is enough! We don't want to hear any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God!"

Watchman Nee had been elsewhere in the village when this confrontation had taken place. Upon being informed about it, he saw that the situation was serious and called the group to prayer. On the morning of the 11th, there was not a cloud in the sky, but during grace for breakfast, sprinkles began to fall and these were followed by heavy rain.

Worshipers of the idol Ta-wang were so upset that they placed it in a sedan chair and carried it outdoors, hoping this would stop the rain. Then the rain increased. After only a short distance, the carriers of the idol stumbled and fell, dropping the idol and fracturing its jaw and left arm.

A number of young people turned to Christ as a result of the rain coming in answer to prayer, but the elders of the village made divination and said that the wrong day had been chosen. The proper day of the procession, they said, should have been the 14th. When Nee and his friends heard this, they again went to prayer, asking for rain on the 14th and for clear days for preaching until then. That afternoon the sky cleared and on the good days that followed there were thirty converts. Of the crucial test day, Nee says:The 14th broke, another perfect day, and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met again at the appointed hour. We quietly brought the matter to the Lord's remembrance. Not a minute late, His answer came with torrential rain and floods as before.

The power of the idol over the islanders was broken; the enemy was defeated. Believing prayer had brought a great victory. Conversions followed. And the impact upon the servants of God who had witnessed His power would continue to enrich their Christian service from that time on 

The followers of Jesus were a powerless bunch following his crucifixion and burial.

The events of the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus had crushed the followers of Jesus. The disciples were shaken, tried and found wanting. Judas betrayed Him. Peter denied Him and the rest ran away. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. His body was taken down from the cross and prepared for burial by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.

What they did not understand in that moment of Jesus’ death on the cross of Calvary was this: All things, whether they were things in earth or in heaven above, were in that moment reconciled to God.

Heaven and earth had been invaded and polluted by sin. Christ’s death on the cross put away this pollution. His sacrifice on the cross…His dying was in our place and for our sin. It resulted in the blood of Jesus being carried into the Holy of Holies in Heaven and the cleansing of our sin once for all time. Everything was now reconciled to God. Romans 8:21 tells us that even creation was delivered from the pollution of sin. The resurrection of Jesus the Christ guarantees that this is true:

Today we are going to consider the story of the Resurrection of Jesus and it’s meaning for us.

The Story:

We need to recognize that there is no historical account of the resurrection of Jesus. There were no embedded journalists with the guards who were watching the tomb of Jesus. CNN did not have cameras stationed to continuously show the entrance of the tomb 24 hours a day. No one sees the event itself. No eye sees him leave the tomb.

His friends are not expecting him back; so they do not see it take place. John begins to give us selections of the things that happen in the story. He begins with Mary of Magdala. It is very early in the morning on Sunday, the first day of the week "while it is yet dark" we are told that she goes to the tomb.

When she arrives at the grave of Jesus she sees one thing: the stone has been "lifted out" of the way. Other evangelists will tell us that it was rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. It was upon this stone that the seal of Pilate had been placed to guarantee that his disciples did not come and steal the body of Jesus.

Mary does not investigate. She runs to Peter and John.

Now, notice if you will where Peter is at this moment. It was Peter who had denied that he knew Jesus three times. And now this morning he is with John and the Mother of Jesus. This is the only place in the New Testament where we learn where Peter went after he denied his Lord. The last picture we had of Peter is a man with a broken heart going out…having denied Jesus. And John has taken him in.

John and Peter immediately leave the house and go to the sepulcher to see if this is true. John gets there first, running ahead of Peter. He looks into the tomb…he stoops down and looks in and sees the linen cloths lying there but he does not go into the tomb.

Peter arrives at the tomb and he goes right in. He does not wait; he does not discuss the matter. He just goes inside the tomb. He sees the linen cloths lying there and the napkin that was placed on the head of Jesus off to the side in a place by itself.

John then enters the tomb - undoubtedly encouraged by Peter’s boldness - and we are told that "He saw and believed…"

And then they went home!

Mary however did not leave. She had apparently followed them back to the tomb. There is no indication that she had yet seen what they saw nor that they had discussed what they saw with her. She simply remained there.

There is an interesting interplay of words in this story. John, Peter and Mary all used their eyes there at the tomb; but John uses different words to describe how they saw things:

What did they see? Mary saw the stone rolled away from the tomb and the entrance unguarded.

John saw a little more. He saw the grave cloths lying there, fallen flat, exactly as they had been. There was evidence that Jesus’ body was not there.

Peter came in and he examined the tomb carefully. He saw that there had been no haste. The grave clothes that had been wound around the body of Jesus with all the spices between the layers of cloth were undisturbed except that they had fallen flat. They were not unwound as if someone had come into the grave and had unwrapped Jesus’ body. The napkin or head covering was still in the exact form as it had been wrapped around his head. Everything was just as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had left them…except for the fact that Jesus was gone.

When John entered the tomb and saw what was there, he understood that there was no disturbance to the tomb, and that Jesus was gone. He understood and believed that Jesus had been raised from the dead and he was not there. The tomb was empty. Jesus had gone…risen from the dead. That is what he saw and understood.

This is the very heart of Christanity…Jesus was alive. He had been raised from the dead. This is that which John has seen and believed. The angel who rolled the stone away from the entrance to that tomb did not do so to let Jesus out of the tomb. No, he did it to show the world that Jesus was gone…that he had risen from the dead. Jesus was gone before the stone was rolled away and he departed without disturbing the grave cloths.

The Risen Lord.

The second movement in this story revolves around the Risen Lord. We see the movement as it revolves around the relationship of Mary with Jesus. Mary is alone at the tomb. For whatever reason, Peter and John do not share with her what they have seen and she does not leave with them.

As she is outside the tomb, she is weeping. These are not just tears running down her face but she is sobbing, convulsing and sobbing almost uncontrollably. The stone was rolled away from the tomb and the tomb was empty but she did not understand the meaning of it. She stooped down and looked into the tomb. She wanted now to see for herself.

Mary of Magdala was the one out of whom Jesus had caste seven demons. The other evangelists tell us that Mary stayed there at the tomb of Jesus all through the first night after they had buried him. And now she was back on the first day of the week…She was weeping because she had lost him. Looking into that tomb Mary "beholdeth"…sees the same things Peter saw as she carefully examined the inside of the tomb. And she sees two angels…one at the foot and one at the head of the place were the body of Jesus had been. Why are you weeping? they ask..

It is clearly true that Mary does not understand yet that Jesus is alive because her answer reveals it: "They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid him." Though he was dead, he was her Lord and she had lost him.

As she turned back to leave…it is interesting to note that the presence of the angels did not satisfy her heart and she essentially ignores them and turns her back upon them. And when she does she sees someone standing there. She "beholdeth" the man thinking him to be a gardner. She makes a surprise, wondering examination of this man but she does not yet understand who it is.

He asks her the same question the angels did. "Woman, Why are you weeping? To Mary Jesus was just a man standing there who might be able to tell her where the body of Jesus had been taken.

He simply says, "Mary." I don’t think we can ever approximate the tone of his word to her. It was a word that recalled all the memories and the love they shared. Her response was "Rabboni" which is "Teacher." She steps forward to touch, to hold him and he stops her.

Do not cling to me he says for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Things have changed. There is a new relationship that exists. Mary you have to break with the past. He tells her to go to the disciples and to tell them that he is ascending soon to His Heavenly Father. She goes back and tells them "I have seen the Lord." We have an empty grave and a living Lord.

That is the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the eyes of John.

What does it mean to us today? What does it say to us?

The resurrection of Jesus declares him to be the Son of God with power.

God set His seal of truth on everything Jesus said and did while he was here on the earth.

His death on the cross of Calvary was sufficient to pay the penalty for our ransom from sin. He dealt with sin once and or all time and all who believe in him have his life within them that will be for all eternity.

The resurrection endorses the promises of the Bible as the certain Word of God.

The resurrection reveals God’s ability to keep His Word and His mighty power to us who believe. If he has kept his word in raising the dead Jesus, he can surely fulfill all his promises to us.

Paul would want us to understand the greatness of God’s power toward us represented by the power he used to raise Jesus from the dead. That power is available to us today.

Paul prays that the believers in Ephesus might access that kind of power. Maybe we should pray for it too!

-- Dennis Gleason