Luke 24, verse one to verse 12. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this. Behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11, and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. But these words seem to them an idle tale.
And they did not believe them. The Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloth by themselves. And he went home, marveling at what had happened. Well, good morning, and welcome to the Easter services here at Christ Communion Chapel. My name is Zach. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad that we get to be part of your family's Easter weekend. You know, Easter, of course, is a major holiday in the Christian faith, a major holiday for a lot of people.
And the holidays tend to mean rhythm and repetition. If your family is like mine, there are certain things you do every year at Easter, maybe certain things you eat, certain activities you participate, and some of you are probably here this weekend because someone in your family not so lovingly reminded you that we go to church on Easter weekend.
Holidays are times of rhythm and repetition, but that also can mean there are times in danger of going a little stale if you do the same things year in and year out, you can get kind of overly comfortable with it. They can lose a little bit of their luster. And in some ways, our goal here at the Easter weekend service is to make sure that doesn't happen to you with Easter. Let me give you an illustration. Describe what I mean. Every day I come home from work or wherever I've been.
As soon as I hit the door, sometimes even before, my six year old daughter Ella, will come from wherever she is screaming to the door saying, daddy's home, daddy's home, daddy's home. My teenagers. Not so much. But Ella is very excited that, there, you got to really have your head on a swivel. She can come from anywhere. Now imagine if we came from the same place you and I, we walk into my home and Ella comes running. Daddy, daddy, daddy and gives me a big hug.
And you look at me and you say, oh, that's so sweet. And I say, you know what? It gets a little old after a while, a little stale. You would know instantly. The problem isn't with that amazing six year old girl being excited that her dad's home, something is off in my heart. Listen, we don't want that to be you. Easter is a time where we celebrate some incredible things, some amazing things. Things that should pick you up and and arrest your attention.
And if that isn't you this weekend, then let's give it a shot for the next 20 minutes or so of seeing if we can't get you there to to get there, would you would you open your Bible to Luke chapter 24?
We're going to look at the verses that were just so beautifully read, Luke 24 but if you have your iPhone or your tablet, however you want to get there, and hey, if you're here this weekend and it's been a while since you've been in church, maybe you didn't think to bring a Bible or you don't know your way around the Bible. I want you to know that every verse I reference is going to be on the screen behind me.
But if you want to hold something and follow along, there's a Bible in the pew in front of you. And I preach from one of those Bibles just so that I can tell you that today's reading is on page 831, in the upper right hand side. And I'm so glad, by the way, that you're here. And I want you to know everything I have to say this morning is as much for you as it is for anybody.
But however you're getting to Luke chapter 24, let me hold out to you an outline I'm going to use to guide our time together. Three points. Very simple. They go like this I want to show you it happened. It had to happen and it happened for you. Okay? It happened. It had to happen. And it happened for you. Right? Let me start with the first one. It happened. Now, you might have noticed when the verses were being read that they read as historical narrative.
They're they're are retelling of historical events. That's important that that is the way Luke is writing. That's what he's trying to do to describe things that actually took place. Luke's gospel is a historical account of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Don't take my word for that. Listen to what Luke says at the very beginning of his gospel
about what he's trying to do. This is what he says, inasmuch as many have under taken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have it, have delivered them to us.
It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time, passed to right and orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught. Do you see the language? He says? I'm writing an orderly account so that you might have certainty. That's the kind of language you would use if you're writing a historical account of actual events.
Now, I say that because I think there's a kind of modern presupposition people bring with them to the gospels, to the story of Jesus's resurrection, and that is that we should not read these things literally, but they're not intended to be read literally. They're not intended to be read historically. They're they're metaphor, they're allegory, they're fiction. They're inspirational but not literal. But that isn't what Luke is saying. You can argue that Luke is lying.
You can make the case that he's writing something he knows not to be true, to convince us to believe it. That's plausible. But you really can't fictionalize it or or allegories it or make it metaphor for inspiration because he's saying, no, no, no, no, this actually took place. The resurrection actually happened. And what he's doing really is dangling a thread in front of us. He's saying, listen, I'm telling you that Jesus literally lived. He literally died, and he literally rose from the dead.
You should look into it. That's what he's saying. You should pull on the thread to see if there's anything there. And it's interesting to me that I think most modern people think that if they were to pull on the thread of the resurrection, if they were to explore the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, that there wouldn't be much there actually nothing could be further from the truth. Let me illustrate my point. You see, I have this stack of books here.
Don't worry, I'm not going to read from any of them. Okay? I just want to make a point. Like, for example, this book was written by an investigative journalist whose wife became a Christian, and he didn't like that. So he said, well, I'm an investigative journalist. Here's what I'll do. I will disprove Christianity using all my professional skills so that my wife will stop being a Christian and stop going to church.
The result of that investigation is this book and that guy now being a professing Christian. This book was written by one of the foremost theologians of the 20th century, who dedicated the bulk of his career and life to looking into the resurrection of Jesus, to anchoring it in history, not just from the Bible, but from all kinds of first century sources. You can see it's not a light read.
These two are about how the resurrection of Jesus in just one century, without the internet, without television, without airplanes, or any of the things that we have changed the Roman Empire. These two are about how the resurrection has shaped Western civilization. This one is about how the resurrection gave birth to what you know as modern science. This one is how the resurrection have given birth to what you know and I know as justice.
My point is this so many people will say, pastor, if Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God, if he's the only way to be forgiven, then what happens to people who have never heard of Jesus? That's a great question. That's a fair question. It's a question we've answered before in sermons here. We'll answer it again because it's such a good question. But you know, that question in some ways is inherently irrelevant to everyone here in this room.
Let me ask a more pressing question for you and for I. If Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who literally and historic, he lived and died and rose from the dead, if one day we will die and stand before him in judgment, then what excuse will we who have the internet, an Amazon, and a library card have for not exploring whether or not it's true?
Every Easter is God's invitation to you to pull on the thread, to look for yourself, to examine whether or not there is reason to believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Now, I know you might be thinking, well, okay, let's just say for a second I assume that if I read one or more of these books, I would be convinced. Let's just say that Jesus did literally live and die and raise from the dead. So what? I mean, good for him, but what's that got to do with me?
Well, that's actually my second point. Not just that it happened, but that it had to happen. That it had to happen. Look at what the text says in verses five through eight. You'll hear this must language, verse five. And as they were frightened and bowed, their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise. And they remember his words. That's a reference to an earlier statement Jesus made in Luke 922 when he says this, this is Jesus talking. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed. And on the third day raise.
You see, the Bible isn't just saying that Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead. It's saying that he needed to do it, that there's something essential about it, something essential for you and essential for me. And to unpack that, you really need to read the New Testament. That's what it's about. But there's this one line in the New Testament, in Second Corinthians five, that sums it all up in a single sentence. Here's what it says for our sake.
He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Let me give you three words that will help you understand the significance of Easter all over again. Or maybe for the first time, the first is payment. Is it the Bible says that death is not just a biological reality. It's not just a chemical reality or a physiological reality that death is most fundamentally a spiritual reality. That God made a good world and we rebelled against him. We ignored him.
We lived without reference to him. So our world is broken. We are broken. And a consequence of that brokenness is that we die. It's that we die. You and I will die and face the judgment of God as a consequence of our sin. But the Bible also tells us that God sent Jesus, who knew no sin, who had no debt to pay, no death that was waiting for him, no need to fear judgment. Jesus came and lived righteously in our place so that he could go to the cross and die sacrificially on our behalf.
Jesus becomes our sin on the cross. He comes up under the anger and wrath and judgment of God righteously on me for the way I've broken the world. Jesus places himself between God and me as part of God's plan, so that when Jesus dies and says it is finished, what he means is that the payment has been made. He dies not for his sin, but for mine. That's what Jesus his death is all about.
But when Jesus dies, it's entirely possible that he will die for his own sin, that he'll stay dead the way you and I will stay dead, because he deserved to die. Like when the judge sentenced you, sentences you to prison for a crime. You don't just go the first day you stay there. That's the penalty. That's why you and I die and stay dead. So when Jesus dies, the assumption is he's just like the rest of us. That's why the second word I want you to think of is not just payment, but receipt.
Because when Jesus on the third day rises from the dead, what he's saying is that death had no claim on him. He didn't owe death. He didn't owe judgment. He didn't die because he was a sinner. He died not for his sin, but for ours. When he raises from the dead on Easter Sunday, that is the proof that God has accepted his death on our behalf. Which leads me to my third word, which is confidence, payment, receipt, confidence. Let me illustrate this for you.
I'm sure you've had this experience where you notice when you're walking into Walmart or Target or Costco, that the person at the door checking receipts is feeling pretty aggressive that day. You just notice they are stopping and searching everybody. And when that happens, I really don't like to be embarrassed. Plus, I'm a I'm a pastor and I don't want people thinking I'm shoplifting a toaster oven.
So when I notice they're being aggressive, I will walk out towards the exit with, with the item I purchased in one hand and my receipt in the other hand is kind of flapping in the breeze. Just saying. Hey, here it is. Look here, I paid for this. Now, I will admit that sometimes I'm feeling ornery, and I tucked the receipt in my back pocket just to see if they'll ask me. So when they stop saying I'm sorry, sir, did you pay for that? I can say, as a matter of fact, I did.
The point is, you proceed towards the exit with confidence, because if somebody asks you if the bill has been paid, you can prove that it has been friends. Jesus came to die for our sin. He rose from the dead as proof that God has accepted it, so that if we will grab hold of him in faith, we can live and die with the confidence that comes from knowing the bill has been paid.
Friends, God doesn't want you to live another minute with anxiety over whether or not he loves you, over whether or not you can be forgiven, over whether or not you can be included in what he is doing. Jesus has come to pay the bill. His resurrection is proof that the bill has been paid.
And God, even this morning, wants to hand you a receipt so that you can live and die, saying, when they stop me at the gates of judgment, I will have flapping in the breeze the proof that I have been forgiven, that I am accepted because of Jesus. That's the significance of Easter payment, receipt and confidence. But even as I say that, I know there are some here this weekend who will say, that sounds so amazing, pastor, that sounds so wonderful. It couldn't possibly be for me.
And what you mean is, you know, your debt is too great. You say, if you knew why my marriage ended, if you knew why my family doesn't speak to me. If you knew, pastor, why I came in alone this Easter weekend, you would know that he might have done that for some people. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He shouldn't do that for me. That's why I want you to know. My third point is not just that it happened and it had to happen, but that it happened for you.
One of my family's Easter traditions is an Easter egg hunt. You probably do something pretty similar now. Easter egg hunts are primarily an athletic enterprise, okay? The bigger and taller and faster and stronger you are, the more likely you are to fill your basket with eggs. And now I have a six year old daughter. Ally told you about her. And so what I try to do, because I have older kids who are going to get all the eggs, is I will take one egg and I'll hide it super low to the ground.
I pick a colorful one like purple, and I'll put it below a bench right there on the open out the ground and I'll I'll go back to where they're going to start. And I'll say to Allah, when you turn the corner, there's a little purple egg down there at the bottom under the bench. That one's for you. And she'll say, okay, daddy. And then I look at my teenagers and I say, if you touch that egg, you die. And when she rounds that corner and sees that egg, she knows there's something there for her.
By the way, that's where the term Easter egg in movies and television comes from. You know, when the director drops a little something in there for the superfans and she kind of winks at you and says, hey, I know you're watching and this is for you. Would it surprise you that in this story there's an Easter egg for you? If you notice, at the very end of this passage, we're told one guy goes to the tomb, one guy has to see it for himself. And that guy is Peter. Peter. Why? Peter?
Well, because just a chapter ago, at Jesus's most crucial moment, Peter betrayed him. Peter denied him in the most crucial moment of Jesus's life, Peter proved to be an absolute phony, an absolute fraud, the worst kind of phony, the worst kind of fraud, an overconfident religious phony, the worst. But you see, God wants you to know that there was room at the empty tomb for Peter, because there is for you to. Don't you see that's a little Easter egg that God is putting on the ground.
And he's saying, I know what happened to your marriage. I know why you're alone. I know about your guilt. I know about your shame. But hey, when you round the corner, underneath the bench is a little purple egg for you friends. God doesn't want you to go one more Easter without knowing that you can be forgiven, without knowing that his love and power can rescue you and change you and secure your future forever with him. Don't live with anxiety.
Live and die with the confidence of holding that receipt of Jesus in your hands. Let me pray for us. Father God, thank you so much for the resurrection. Thank you for the proof that Jesus really was our atoning sacrifice, that his life counts for our righteousness, that his death counts for our atonement and our judgment. That his resurrection is the proof that you have accepted what he's done and through him accepted us.
God, there are some here this weekend who needed to hear that again because it had lost its luster. May it shine brighter than it ever has for us. And there are those that came in this weekend who have never believed, never grabbed hold of God, that even right now they might be saying, God, if any of this, if all of this is true, would you show me God? Would you do for them? What? No sermon or music or anything else can do?
Would you open their hearts and minds to the reality of Jesus and His name? We pray. Amen.