Calvary Baptist Church

Holy Week is a time when we reflect on the events of Jesus’ “Passion Week.”  The term “passion” speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This week’s holy week services were recounted in first person through John’s Eyes.  If you missed one of the services, you can watch them on the Calvary Baptist Church Facebook page.  Today’s message is taken from the first half of John 20.

 

The landscape was calm, but our hearts were not.  

The last hours seemed to go on forever.  From the time He was laid in the tomb the rest of His followers and I wandered back to the upper room.  We simply did not know where else to go. 

No one was shouting now.  No shouts of “hosanna” rang through the air. No one was yelling “crucify.”  He was off the cross and in the tomb.

We came back.  I arrived first.  Others came later. 

They came back. Slowly. One by one. They came back. Matthew, Nathaniel, Andrew. They came out of hiding. Out of the shadows. James, Peter, Thaddeus. Some were already on their way home, back to Galilee, but they had to wait until after the Sabbath, so they came back.

We did not talk much.  I wondered where they were when the sky turned black.  They left.  I stayed.  But it did not matter.  I had no room for judging them.  We all felt the same hopelessness.

In those silent hours no one spoke of our fears or guilt. We merely wondered what would come next.  What would we do?  I supposed I would go back to our family fishing business.

From all sections of the city, we arrived. Too convicted to go home, yet too confused to go on. Each with a desperate hope that it had all been a nightmare or a cruel joke. Each hoping to find some kind of solace in numbers. They came back. Something in their nature refused to let them give up. Something in those words spoken by the Master pulled them back together.

No one knew what to expect.  Our hearts were as restless as our bodies as we tried to sleep that Saturday night.  Morning light would allow us to scatter for good.

We also had an overwhelming fear.  Would the next sound be the sound of the soldiers coming for us.  We could hear the sound in our minds of them coming for Jesus.  They could easily come to get us.

The thin light of dawn had appeared under the door. Night was finally over; today we would leave. Today we would run away, back to the only life we knew.

Banging and screaming broke the early morning silence.  Urgent.  Loud.  Insistent banging and then a voice. It was Mary. She was shouting.

Once we let her in, she struggled to catch her breath long enough to tell us what was happening.

“We went to the tomb…to finish the anointing…He is not…He is gone…we have no idea where he is.”

We did the only thing we could do.  Peter and I took off, running as fast as we could. 

We were not concerned that it was not considered appropriate for Palestinian men to run.  We tore through the streets, rounding this corner and that one.

We had to find out for ourselves.

I got there first and looked in.    The huge stone, designed to prevent desecration of the tomb, was rolled away.  I stood outside the door and peered in. I did not want to risk being considered unclean. 

So, I stood there and waited.  I did not know what to think.  I saw the clothes but did not really understand what it meant.

Breathless, Peter ran right past me and entered the tomb.  He looked much more carefully.  He came out of the tomb, and I went in. 

This time I really looked.  I could see Jesus’ grave clothes.  It looked so much like He was just taken out of them.  It was no single cloth.  It was so large and wrapped so much that it took one hundred pounds of spices to wrap him appropriately.

Then I saw the head clothe.  It was folded neatly and laid there.  Placed carefully in just the right place.  It lay on the chiseled stone shelf where the body had been. Yet now with nothing inside, its coils lay collapsed, empty, like a chrysalis after the butterfly has emerged. Folded separately was the cloth that had been around Jesus' head.

I know some would later say that they may have taken His body.  But no one would have been able to take Him and leave the clothes like that.  They would have taken Him in the grave clothes.

Nothing was out of place.  No hint of disarray.  The clothes told the story that they were no longer needed.  I really took all this in and believed in Him.

Seeing all of this I believed, genuinely believed.  He was risen. But how?  What did it mean? 

The rest of the day was filled with emotion and questions.  We all talked about the things Jesus had taught us.  He said He would rise. Now it all started to make sense.

Through the day we heard report after report confirming what I thought.  And then it happened.  As we sat in the room He came in.  Through the wall He was there.

He greeted us in peace.  Then, He invited us to see the wounds as if we needed those to confirm who He was.  We spent the evening with Him. What a night.  He is risen.  And it makes all the difference.

 

The apostle Paul made it clear.  This is the most important truth in history.  Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. His words

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Do you catch the significance of Paul’s words?  “This is of “First importance.” The cross rests on the timeline of history.  The cross is the hinge upon which the door of history swings.  It is the one moment in time that freezes history.

The message that changed the first century world was that human beings are guilty, helplessly guilty of sins for which they can atone.  It is almost too simple. Jesus was killed, buried, and resurrected. Surprised? The part that matters is the cross. No more and no less.

A survey of the earliest sermons and some of the writings of Paul verify the importance of the crucifixion and the resurrection.  For the next few paragraphs listen in as Peter and Paul focus our attention on the power of the resurrection of Jesus.   I will add emphasis to each passage.

The Power of the Resurrection Conquers Death-Acts 2:22-25

22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: "'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Jesus was freed from the agony of death by His resurrection.  By that single event Jesus freed US from death as well.  We live even if we die because He is alive.

The Power of the Resurrection Conquers Sickness-Acts 3:11-16

11 While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

God raised Jesus from the dead.  That same power raised the disabled man.  We may face the ravages of sickness in this world, but because of the resurrection we will stand victorious.   Sickness may touch us for a moment, but we ultimately stand victorious over sickness.

The Power of the Resurrection Offers Forgiveness-Acts 10:39-43

39 "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.   41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen — by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Because Jesus is risen forgiveness is offered.  He is the risen judge of the living and the dead.  The judge declares you not guilty through His resurrection.  You need not carry a load of guilt and shame.

The Power of the Resurrection Offers Justification-Acts 13:26-35

26 "Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. 32 "We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm "'You are my Son; today I have become your Father. ‘34 The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'  35 So it is stated elsewhere: 'You will not let your Holy One see decay.'  36 "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. 38 "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

Jesus did not see decay.  He was victorious over death.  His resurrection made it possible not only for us to be forgiven but also for us to be justified.  He made you as if you have never sinned.  Through the resurrection He sees you clean!

 

The Power of the Resurrection Provides Salvation-Romans 10:9-10

9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

The message is simple.  God raised Jesus.  The belief in the resurrection is necessary for salvation.  It is through risen Lord that we are saved.

The Power of the Resurrection Brings Grace-Ephesians 2:1-10 

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are raised up with Christ!  He raised from the dead and raises us up with Him.  We are already seated in the heavenly realms.  Our place in heaven is guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus.

All these blessing are ours based solely and completely on the death and resurrection of our Lord.  This is the message of first importance.  Celebrate not just today but through the year.  He is risen and it changes everything!