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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
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.