Sunday Morning Podcast April 5, 2021. Bro. Dave Goble.
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We really do think about the change God has made for us on Easter! I do, and I think most of you do! We think of the person we used to be, and that whole person had to “die,” just like Christ died on the cross. This is one of the important parts, each part of the week we just went through; culminating Friday afternoon, and the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus was placed in the tomb, and yesterday he was dead, but early this morning He rose again! Each one of these passages are a type, but they are important to us! We have to find ourselves in a garden before we go to the cross. And there we had to agonize over who we are, and why we’re here. Why are we living? Why are we here? That is a kind of a passage into a garden of agony. We struggle to figure out, why am I here? You know when you’re “17-20 years,” you don’t think about it that much, for you hope that you have a long life ahead of you. As you get older you start to ask these questions more often. You know I asked this question myself when I was about 23 years old. You don’t have to wait until your “20,22, 62, or 82 old,” to ask these questions. You come to a garden in life where you struggle with what’s the meaning, what’s the purpose? Now, before there is an answer, it’s just frustrating! There isn’t an answer. Many people will just put the question aside and move on into something else, something that pleases them, gives them satisfaction or happiness. But “that” question doesn’t get answered! Jesus confronted that question honestly. He knew it demanded an answer that required Him to remain there until He was arrested, taken before judgement, beaten, falsely accused and then taken to the cross for crucifixion. He knew all of this would follow that kind of garden agony. He stayed on the cross. One of the most beautiful messages of the cross, was that of the people that hated Him so badly. And as they bargained for His clothes at the foot of the cross, He knew they were there, and stayed with them while asking His Father to forgive them! One of the hardest things to do in life, is to be present with someone who has caused you pain, and stay with them, and not attack them, get bitter, or hold a grudge! One of the hardest lessons of the cross, is that Jesus stayed present with that! Everyone that is here today, Jesus stayed present with what we did and who we are! He stayed present with me, and you. And He died. This is the third Jewish calendar day, where early in the morning He arose again! This is the beginning of our thought of our message this morning. Of how to interpret the resurrection for us.
TEXT: LUKE 24:1-5
1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
We cannot presume or claim a resurrection, unless we’ve had an experience of dying first. And the death of self, is the death of sin. The death of everything that separates us from God. That must happen first. It’s not my or a congregation’s opinion. A resurrection demands that. We don’t say I don’t like “this,” so I’ll choose something else. There has to be a death! So we’re meant to know, as Jesus knew, that we’ve died to self and sin. Then follows the resurrection. The angel said, why are you looking for something that is living, where dead people are buried? And so also we are meant to be found among the living, and not where the spiritually dead people are. Luke 24:6-12 6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. 7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of the sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8 And they remembered his words, 9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. I always find it interesting that it wasn’t first the disciples that found the risen Christ, but it was the women that found the risen Christ. 11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. 12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
Now I’d like you to consider 3 things this morning about this passage. There is a request here by the Lord, asking you to imagine something. 1 He’s asking you to imagine, that it is possible that someone so brutally murdered and killed on a cross, could rise again 3 days later. He’s asking you to imagine somehow, that we too could be reborn and rise again. That’s the whole point of this story, that we too could be this way! 2 To imagine that He really did rise again! And it’s not just to imagine this, we’re meant to experience it! Imagination without the experience, is unfulfilled. 3 But if we have the experience of that we imagined, then we can say, ..this is true! And that’s the third thing. We’re meant to ask this passage today, true or not true. We can work backwards. The way we know it’s true, is by the experience. We don’t get the experience unless we can imagine. 1) To imagine it is possible. 2) And imagine what it must be to experience this. 3) And to ask the question; true or not true? In all this this morning, the point of my thoughts is to confront doubt. Doubt is one of the “boogey men” of today. There are threats to people today, and one of them is doubt. Doubt is heavy, ..thick. It descends like a fog, and it sits on people. Part of the Christian message is to interpret for men and women this thought that this can be true, and to confront the doubt. I’m going to skip part of this passage, and ask you to relate to you a piece of the story, that was always important in devotions to my wife and I, and my children, when reading something before they went to bed. We along with the biblical devotion, would read to the children a devotional story with a spiritual message to it. There’s a series that is by C.S. Lewis that many of you have read, a series; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the first novel of this series, the Lion which is “a type of Jesus,” allows himself though more powerful, to be captured by the enemy, (even though he could have escaped), was bound and the enemy plunges this knife into his breast, and in that moment the lion really does die. As you read it, you feel such sorrow and grief for the lion, for the lion didn’t deserve this, he is peaceful, for the last thing he would have done was to hurt someone. But evil doesn’t care when it slaughters good. Evil is so wicked today. We know that just by reading the news. You don’t have to be religious to know that. And the lion dies, and there’s two girls who love the lion and are faithful to him, weeping and scrub his mane and the lion is dead! In the Apocalypse, the last book of the bible it speaks of the Lion of Judah, for the lion is a type of Christ. In this story of the Lion, he rises the next day. He had been crucified on a stone table, and the girls go back, but the lion is gone. There’s crack in the middle of the table, rent in two. Sound familiar? When Jesus arose, the curtain was rent, that had separated the holy place from the holiest place, and was torn from the top to the bottom, in two. So when the girls go back and find this, they are grieving and wondered “where did he go?” And then he appears more magnificent, stronger, silkier, and larger than before. One of the girls asked “how did you come back?” And he says there is a magic that goes even further back than the one who killed me knows. And when a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in the traitor’s stead, the table cracks, and death itself begins to work backward.
Through this tale, I’m asking you to imagine something, that when a willing victim, who did nothing to deserve his death, committed no treachery, is killed instead of the person who should have been killed, then in “this” case, death begins to work itself backwards until it reaches life again. Three days ago, a willing victim was crucified for us. I like to make it “present.” Three days ago, a willing victim was crucified for you, and for me. So one of the things some of us are going to have to do this morning when we leave, is to ask ourselves, “What am I going to do with this? Someone died for me!” That’s a big deal! What shall I do with this? Someone died for me! Laid in the grave beyond the time any person could be “resurrected” in a natural way. Jesus was beaten so badly, suffered such loss of blood, nailed to a cross, so there was no question that when he died He was dead that Friday, And He was still dead the next day. So there’s no question that when these women went to the tomb Sunday, He had been dead! There was not natural intervention that could have raised Jesus! So they find an empty tomb! Doubt says there’s no way that this could happen! The doubters would, and have said, that this is just a fable of religious people. God is asking us to imagine that this could and did possibly happen!
Real or Not Real?
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=495179351501945
Luke 24:1-5