Jesus Lives
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Do you remember the first time you ate a particular food? I remember the first time I ate biscuits and gravy. I grew up eating gravy. My mother made the best gravy. Her gravy was the envy of her sisters. She made beef gravy and chicken gravy better than anyone around. However, we never ate biscuits and gravy. I never heard about pouring gravy on a biscuit for breakfast. The first time I saw it was when I went to college at Johnson, in Knoxville. I took one look and decided I’d never put that in mouth. And I didn’t.
Fast forward a couple of years and I was traveling for the school. We would sing at a church and then spend the night with church members. One morning I got up and guess what was on the table. Guess what was only on the table. I sat down and the only think available was biscuits and gravy. Since there wasn’t anything else to eat and I didn’t want to hurt the feelings of our host who served them, I ate them. And then, I couldn’t wait to get back to school and have some more. They were great! I don’t know what I was expecting them to taste like but they far exceeded what I had thought.
Expectations are important. Our expectations color what we think something is going to be like and can affect the way we receive it. If your expectations are met that’s great. But if your expectations aren’t met, it can be disappointing. Expectations can be tricky because many of them we don’t even think about. They go unexamined until someone or something fails to meet them.
What are your expectations about Easter? What do you expect on Easter Sunday? We expect to hear a sermon about how Jesus was raised back to life three days after being crucified on a cross. But what did those who were there when Jesus was crucified expect? What were their expectations? The sad truth is that while Jesus predicted both his death and his resurrection, no one believed Jesus would actually rise from the dead. So, what did they expect? What were the expectations of those in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified?
We’ll be looking at several gospel passages this morning as we examine those expectations. The first is found in Matthew 27.
The religious leaders expected the followers of Jesus to steal the body of Jesus. As a result, they asked that Jesus’ tomb be guarded.
Matthew 27:62–66 62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard
I think it’s funny that the religious leaders remembered these words of Jesus. I think it’s funny because it doesn’t seem like the disciples did. However, the religious leaders did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead. Because they didn’t trust Jesus or his followers, they expected the disciples to do something underhanded like stealing the body and then claiming he had risen from the dead. That’s why they asked for the guards. That doesn’t make any sense though.
First, if the disciples claimed Jesus had risen from the dead they would have to prove it by showing that Jesus was alive. People would want to see Jesus which would have been impossible if they’d only stolen his dead body. God’s word says more than five hundred saw the resurrected Lord though. And second, think about what happened to the disciples in the years that followed. Tradition says they all suffered for their faith in Jesus.
The Babylon Bee made a humorous video this year about the disciples making plans to steal the body of Jesus. Peter says:
Jesus is dead. I have a plan. We are going to steal his body. And then, we are going to tell the whole world that he rose from the dead. And then, we’re all going to get brutally murdered.
Except for John, the other disciples are excited about Peter’s idea. But that’s exactly what happened. They all suffered because of their faith in Jesus.
Now turn to Mark 16.
The women expected to find a stone in front of the tomb.
Mark 16:1–8 1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Once the sun went down, they were not allowed to work on his body to prepare it for burial. Once his body had been brought down from the cross, they worked quickly to do as much as they could, but they didn’t have time to finish. No doubt they had faced this problem of hurriedly before the Sabbath. They knew what to do. They did as much as they could on Friday and would finish on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath.
But once they were on their way, they remembered the stone. The practice of the day was to place a stone over the entrance to the tomb to protect the body from wild animals. We have another reference to such a stone in John 11 when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Before he did so however, Jesus asked that the stone be taken from the tomb. As the women walked to the place where Jesus was buried they remembered the stone that had been placed there. They were expecting the stone to still be in front of Jesus’ tomb when they arrived and wondered how they would get into the tomb. Since none of the men came with him, who would roll it away for them?
But that’s not what they found. When they arrived, the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty and the body of Jesus was gone. An angel informed them that Jesus wasn’t there because he had risen. Then, they were instructed to go tell the disciples, which is what they did.
Now let’s turn to John 20 and look at the story of the disciples.
What did the disciples expect to find that Sunday morning?
John 20:1–10 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
They had been told by Jesus that three days after he was crucified that he would rise from the dead. These women came from the tomb telling them that’s what had happened. So what did the disciples expect to find when they went to the tomb? They still expected to find the body of Jesus. They had the prediction of Jesus, but they didn’t understand. They had the testimony of the women, but they didn’t believe. Perhaps they didn’t believe the women because it was just too good to believe. So, they had to go and see for themselves. Through the centuries, Thomas has been maligned for not believing when he was told that Jesus had risen. He insisted that he wouldn’t believe until he had seen for himself and touched the scars. But Peter and John didn’t believe wither. It was only after they saw the empty tomb for themselves that they believed.
So, those were the expectations of the religious leaders who had sent Jesus to Pilate to be crucified, of the women seeking to prepare his body for burial, and of the disciples who had traveled with Jesus for three years. But what are the expectations today? What do people today expect concerning the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?
There are some who expect the story of Jesus’ resurrection to be only a myth.
Religions from around the world have myths they believe about the deity they worship. I remember studying Greek mythology in school: Pandora’s Box, Icarus flying close to the sun, the 12 labors of Hercules, and King Midas with his golden touch. The list goes on and on.These are stories about thier gods and how they intereacted with people. There are even several ancient religions that have myths about their gods rising from the dead. There are some today that think of the story of Jesus’ resurrection in similar terms. They think the stories of Jesus healing the sick and especially of his rising from the dead are nothing more than myths. They understand that people genuinely believe the resurrection to have literally taken place, but it didn’t. They expect it to be a myth.
They are others who expect the story of Jesus’ resurrection to be a lie.
That is, people knew it wasn’t true and pretended it was. Like the religious leaders who were concerned about the disciples stealing the body of Jesus and pretending he’d risen from the dead, there are some who think the story is a purposeful lie. It was made up either by the disciples or by followers of Jesus generations later. Either way, the story was purposefully made up to persuade gullible people to become a part of something not true.
The publicist for the late author and debater Christopher Hitchens asked Christian author Larry Taunton to arrange a series of debates between Hitchens, an outspoken atheist, and Christian thinkers. Over the ensuing years, Hitchens and Taunton developed an unlikely friendship. Hitchens stayed in Taunton’s home, and prior to Hitchens’ death from cancer, the two friends took two long road trips across America. Here’s how Taunton describes what happened on one of those trips:
My mind goes back to the Shenandoah. The skies are clear, the autumn leaves are translucent in the early afternoon sun, and the road ahead of us is open … In a strong, clear voice, Christopher is reading from the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John. Reaching the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses, his face lights up with recognition. He stops. “I know this one too,” he says. “I did not recall its connection with the resurrection of Lazarus.”
“It’s a great verse,” I add, sensing we have reached a defining moment. “Yes, Dickens thought so,” Christopher says, and then, taking his reading glasses off, he turns to me and asks: “Do you believest thou this, Larry Taunton?” His sarcasm is evident, but it lacks its customary force. “I do. But you already knew that I did. The question is, do you believest thou this, Christopher Hitchens?” As if searching for a clever riposte, he hesitates and speaks with unexpected transparency: “I’ll admit that it is not without appeal to a dying man.”
It was appealing to him, but he could never wrap his mind around its truthfulness so he never believed it.
Then there are those who believe Jesus rose from the dead but they don’t expect anything from the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
If you asked them if they believed Jesus rose from the dead they would say yes, but that’s as far as it goes. They never think about it. It doesn’t affect their daily lives or anything they do. As a result, they just don’t think about it or care. It doesn’t change the way they live one way or another. Sadly, there are some Christians who hold this position too. They don’t see any importance in believing that Jesus rose from the dead. In fact, there are some who will say you can be a Christian and not believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. They say it doesn’t matter.
But that’s not what the Bible says. God’s word says that the resurrection of Jesus is to be the focus of our faith and of our lives.
I think the problem is many don’t always understand how the resurrection affects their lives today. They are like the deist of the 1700s, they believe that God exists but not that he’s involved in our lives today. He lives thousands of miles away and isn’t really interested in us. However, as preacher wrote:
If you don’t see what it means to you, then you’re kind of missing the point of it. The resurrection is the good news because it’s God’s answer to sin and death.
The resurrection shows that God is more powerful than anything that separates us from him. It also shows God’s desire to save us. Jesus rising from the dead it changes everything. It tells us that this life is not all there is and death is not the end. What matters most in this life is how we prepare for the next one.
A preacher wrote about how his learned about death and dying. He said:
Our son, John learned a valuable lesson about death when he was a child. One day he took aim with his new BB gun at a little bird sitting on a limb near our back deck. He aimed and fired and hit his target and the bird collapsed to the ground. Dead. At first there was the excitement of being a good marksman, but then upon finding the bird, there was the shock of its results. I’ll never forget what John said: “Is he dead?” Yes…son. “Dad, bring him back.” Son, there’s nothing I can do. Talking about a helpless moment!
So what did we do? The only thing a preacher knows to do. You have a funeral service and turn to the one who is our greatest help in our time of need. So, we got a shoebox, dug a hole, had a little service, and said a prayer.
You see, there is only one who has the answer to death. There is only one who has truly conquered death forever. There is only one who defeated death and gave us hope in our most difficult hour and that’s our Savior Jesus! That’s why Easter is such a glorious occasion! It is the celebration of Jesus’ defeat of our greatest enemy – death. Without Jesus, death is the end. Because of Jesus, death is merely a threshold, an entrance to a new life.
How powerful is the resurrection of Jesus in your life? How are you affected by the fact that Jesus is alive?
Paul wrote that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then we’re just waiting our time and should be pitied for believing a lie. We’re like Linus and Sally sitting in the pumpkin path waiting to be visited by the great pumpkin. It’s not going to happen. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then he’s not preparing a place for us and he’s not coming back to get us as he told the disciples in John 14. But if Jesus did rise from the dead then it changes everything.
Before his death Winston Churchill became a follower of Jesus. He made his own funeral arrangements. When they said the benediction, he had arranged for a bugler high in the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral to play “Taps,” the universal signal of the day is over. After he finished there was a long pause, and then a bugler on the side of the dome played “Reveille,” the signal of a new day beginning. It was Churchill’s way of saying that while it was “Good night” here, it is “Good morning” there. Churchill believed his confident hope of victory over death was based on Jesus who is the resurrection and the life.
What do you expect from Easter this morning? Is it just another day or is it a day that changes every other day? Our life, our hope, and our joy are based on Jesus who arose from the dead and brought to us new life. As a result, one day he will take us to our eternal home in heaven.
Do you have this assurance?
https://ministry-to-children.com/
https://missionbibleclass.org/new-testament/part1/life-of-christ-late/breakfast-on-the-shore/
https://missionbibleclass.org/new-testament/part1/life-of-christ-late/burial-and-resurrection-of-jesus/