The Victory at Sunrise (Easter Sunday)

[00:00:00] Well, this morning we're gonna be looking at Luke Chapter 24 and in Luke's account of the resurrection. Now we always encourage you if you have a Bible to open it up and, and it allows you to follow along with us in the message. If you don't have one and would like to use one, there's one in front of you in the pew and, and it's on.

Uh, we invite you to turn there. It's on, uh, page, uh, here we go. Um, I'm gonna try to get there. Here we go. Okay, it's turned on. Okay. Page 8 84. And, uh, now what we'll usually do is, is to start, the message is to read the passage. Uh, and so let me start by reading from Luke 24. But on the first day of the week at early Dawn, they went to the tomb taking spices that 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. And while they were perplexed about this, behold two men stood by them and dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened, they bowed their face to the ground and the men said to them, why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He is not here but has risen.

Remember [00:01:00] 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 in the third day rise, and they remembered his words in 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 seemed to them to be an idol tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter Rose and ran to the tomb and stepping in, looking in, he saw the linen closed by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. May God bless the reading this word. Let me pray. Father, thank you for the privilege that we do have to come together this morning.

Father, to again, to, to spend this time not only worshiping, but now reflecting and, and seeing the incredible story of the resurrection. I pray that you would bless Father, that, that you would speak through me and in spite of me, father, help us to hear not the opinions, the words of a man. But Father, that somehow through me, you would [00:02:00] communicate your timeless truths to each one of our hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Jeremy was a difficult student to have. He had been born with a twisted body, a slow mind, and a chronic terminal illness that had been slowly killing him throughout his young life. Still, his parents tried to give him as normal of life as possible. They sent him to a Christian elementary school where he might receive some extra attention and love.

But at the age of 12, he was still only in the second grade and seemingly unable to learn. Ms. Miller, his teacher was often exasperated with him. At times he would seem to get it, and other times he would just kind of steer off in the distance into his seat. Most of the time she just irritated him. One day she even called his parents and she asked him to come in for a consultation.

His parents sat quietly in the classroom. She said, you know, Jeremy doesn't really belong here. He bongs in a special school. You know, uh, he, it's not fair for him to be in this class. You know, where all the kids are younger than him. And his mom cried softly and his [00:03:00] husband spoke Mrs. Miller. He said, there's no school like that in this area, and you don't know how important this school is to Jeremy.

And it would be terrible for him to take him outta school after his parents left. Uh, Ms. Miller sat and looking out the snow and. And, uh, she, she wanted to sympathize with Jeremy's parents. But, but how could she? I mean, yeah, their, her, you know, their child had a mental, uh, physical illness, a terminal illness, but she had these other kids in the class and, you know, he wasn't learning.

Was he able to learn and why waste time even trying, and she pondered the situation. She prayed, dear God, you know, here I'm complaining about my problems and they're nothing compared with that of this family. Help me to see and to love Jeremy through your eyes. Spring came and the children talked excitedly about the coming of Easter, and Mrs.

Miller told them about the story of Jesus and the resurrection, and then in an attempt to be able to bring spiritual truth into other subjects in class, she then thought, well, spring time's a good time to [00:04:00] talk about new life as an illustration of Easter. And so to emphasize I this idea, she gave each of the students a a little plastic ache.

She said, I want you to go home and find something at home tomorrow. Bring this back and bring it back with something inside of it that, that shows new life. Do you understand? And they all wagged their head. And Jeremy seemed to sit quiet. She didn't under, wasn't sure if he got it. And she thought, you know, should I call his parents?

Should I try to explain how, how do you explain Easter to this boy? What could it ever mean to him? And, and she began to even wonder what is the hope of Easter? That it could bring to Jeremy, to his parents, to, to just even the difficulties that she was facing. What is the hope of Easter? What practical difference does it make in your life?

How does it impact your life at school? How does it impact your friends? How does it impact the challenges you face at work or, or the challenges you face in marriage? What hope do we have in the midst of disappointment and [00:05:00] how has it changed your life? Now clearly we know it's a great story. It's at the foundation of the whole Christian message, but beyond our theology, what practical difference does it make in life?

And here at Community Church, over the past month or so, we've been looking at the story of Jesus' Death and Resurrection in the Book of Luke. And now we come to the story or death and trial. Now we come to a story of the resurrection in Luke 24, but as we come to the Easter story, I, I want to avoid what I think can be a common danger.

And that is that we can jump straight from the scene at the cross, straight to the resurrection. You know what's interesting is when you look at all four gospels, all four gospels don't jump straight from the cross to the resurrection. They actually take a little time to explain the events of his burial.

You know, they could have just said they took Jesus off the cross, they put him in tomb, and next thing you know it's the resurrection. But they all give some explanation to what happened and, and I think the reason is that God wants us to see something about. What was going [00:06:00] on in the hearts of people in that, in that time, in between those two big events, as we look at Luke, what we're seeing, gonna see as we go back to the end of chapter 23 and 24 is that there was a, a defeat that came defeat at the sundown, a defeat that came when, when people realized that Jesus was dead.

And starting in verse 50 of 23, Luke tells us about a man named Joseph of Arimathea, who was a part of the religious council who had condemned Jesus, but he had disagreed with them. The gospel of John tells us that he was a follower of Jesus, but, but he was so secretly because he was fearful of the other religious leaders.

And then in verse 52, we read that this man went to Pilate and he asked for the body of Jesus. And then he took it down and he wrapped it in a went in shroud and he laid him in a tomb cut in stone where there no one el else had ever been laid. And it was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning.

Now, here's what's going on. You know, all the gospels give us these details about his barrier, uh, burial, [00:07:00] because I think what we've gotta realize is that no one was expecting Jesus death. No one had given any thought about how they would bury him on the day before he had been teaching out at the temple with this, you know, in celebrating Passover with his disciples.

His death was an incredible shock. And now suddenly it's come and one of those followers, Joseph quickly tries to make arrangements for the burial. And we're told in the Book of John that he was helped by Nicodemus, who had also become one of the followers of Jesus. But again, they had a significant problem.

They had made no advanced preparations and, and the Sabbath was about to start. You see, the Jewish Sabbath starts on sundown on Friday, and Jesus died at three o'clock in the afternoon. By the time they sent the message to pilot and asked for permission, and it came back. It was nearing, sundown. And, and being the Sabbath, they weren't allowed to do any work on the Sabbath, including the work around burial.

And there was a lot of work to be done. It was a very involved process. It involved laying out the body and, and cleaning it, and [00:08:00] then, and then they would wrap it with strips of linen and then around the strips of linen, they would put these IC spices that almost had this gummy consistency between the layers.

And the result was that the corpse would be encased like a mummy. In these coated strips that over time would dry almost like cement around the body. But because it was such an involved job and because they were limited by time, they weren't prop able to properly complete it. That's the reason that we see.

Then in Luke 24 1, we see the women coming at sunrise returning to the tomb as as we read. That's the context, and on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices. They had prepared. And when you say taking the spices, you know, don't think like garlic or orano or season salt or anything like that?

No, it's, that's not the spices they're talking about. They're talking about the spices used to preserve the dead bodies. They're coming to complete the process of burial. And why are they doing this? Because they thought they were putting Jesus' body in its [00:09:00] final resting place. You see, when they went to the tomb that morning, they weren't expecting a risen Lord.

They were expecting a corpse, a cadaver. They weren't looking for a miracle. They were expecting closure because the story was over. It was time to move on, and all these actions and burial show that there was a conviction of defeat. Jesus was dead. All they could do is remember him and respect him through a proper burial.

Now as, as much as there was this defeat, when you look a little deeper, you see there was actually more than defeat. There was despair, especially in the hearts of the disciples. See, they weren't just saddened by Jesus' death. They were crushed. The disciples had left everything to follow Jesus because they believed he was the Messiah.

But now he was that now he's dead. And, and again, they were in total despair and even think it was even worth in that one of their groups, Judas Sct, had betrayed Jesus for a pocket full of money. The, you know, the [00:10:00] supposed leader of the group, Simon Peter, who made these great claims about how he would never deny Jesus at the moment of cri of crisis, denied that he even knew Jesus three times and all the others.

He was the bravest, you know, it was only Peter and John that followed Jesus to the trial. All the others ran away. In fact, mark tells us that there was somebody that was so scared that when they tried to grab him, this guy wormed out of his clothes, left his clothes, ran a innate way naked, rather than being identified as a faller of Jesus, they were in despair.

And if you could have found them. And were they dejected? Uh, de you know, paralyzed company. Yeah. They were together. But you know, John's gospel tells us that they were behind locked doors because they were fearful the opponents of Jesus would, would come to get them. Why were they so broken? You know? And you think, on the one hand, didn't Jesus say this would happen?

Yes, he did. But they didn't understand it or they didn't believe it. All their hopes and dreams had been on the idea that, well, no, no, he's the Messiah and, and suddenly [00:11:00] it seems to be dead. Because they had no concept of a Messiah that would die. They expected him to be a victorious political leader.

There are prophecies in the Bible that talk about his, his victory and, and they focused only on those prophecies and they, and so they're looking at it and they're saying, well, he's, you know, if he's the Messiah who will be victorious, he will go into Jerusalem and now he's dead. They totally missed all the prophecies in the PI in the Bible that talked about is suffering Messiah, but because they couldn't conceive a Messiah that died, they also couldn't conceive of a Messiah who would rise again from the dead.

In fact, if we go a little later in Luke, we're gonna look at this next week in Luke, in verses 13 through 20, uh, 35 of 24. It tells us of two disciples who are walking along this dusty road to Emmaus after, uh, the, the afternoon of Easter. And suddenly they're joined by a stranger. The stranger turns out to be Jesus.

They don't realize that yet. And the stranger asks them why [00:12:00] they're so depressed, and they talk about they had all these hopes of Jesus, and, and they tell 'em about his death. And, and then they explain in verse 21, we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And we had these great hopes.

The Old Testament talks about this redeemer, but again, they only looked at the political, they thought he would be a political redeemer who would establish the kingdom of God and, and, and Jerusalem. And for a little while it looked like Jesus could do that. I mean, look at all the miracles, feeding 5,000, raising Lazarus from the dead.

And, but when he died, naturally they assumed he failed because the redeemer of the world couldn't die. He was supposed to overcome, not succumb to death, but again, what they missed is all the prophecies that talked about the suffering Messiah, they missed the fact that he came to bring a different kind of redemption, not a political redemption of power.

But to redeem us from our greatest need, our greatest need was to be freed and redeemed from sin. It's what it's talked about in Galatians three. Christ redeemed us from the [00:13:00] curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, curse it as everyone who is hanged on a tree. He came to redeem us by literally purchasing our freedom, by paying the price of our sins.

He took God's curse, uh, for our sins by becoming literally sin and the curse of sin. As he hung on the cross. But again, before the resurrection, the disciples didn't understand this and because they didn't understand it, they couldn't anticipate him dying. They couldn't anticipate him rising from the dead.

They're defeated. But you know what's amazing about the story? If you look just a couple weeks out after this, you find everything has changed. These same men who had been paralyzed, hiding behind locked doors. Who had been buried in despair are now in the streets of Jerusalem, boldly proclaiming Jesus res in the resurrection.

You see, they're still the same opposition. They're still all the same people that hated Jesus. But here they are now an incredible courage. And we might have expected one thing if they overcome their shock and [00:14:00] shame and, and went back to where they were before. But no, they're literally transformed.

They're on the streets boldly proclaiming. You know about Jesus and he said, you know, he, this one that you crucified, he has raised from the dead. We're all witnesses of this. And the question is, what would change them so much? What would drive these men from total fear and paralyzation? It's incredible, um, to incredible faith and courage.

And it was the victory of Sunday morning. It was the victory of the resurrection again, as we saw earlier. The women went to the tomb to complete the resurrection or the process of anointing Jesus. And when they get there, they see that the stone has thrown away. They, they look in and they see that Jesus' body isn't there.

And, and we're told that they, they have incredible fear. Now we read this and we think of spiritual stories and we don't, we gotta remember these are real people. Okay? Um, how many of y'all ever been to a graveyard, like near dark? It's kind of spooky, [00:15:00] right? Okay. So let's say that it's near dark and you go to a graveyard, you're there to see this tombstone of someone that you know, and you get there and the tomb is dug up and the casket is empty.

Kind of spooky, right? And then you turn around and there's these people in glowing clothes right there. I mean, I would be scared to death. So when I read that, they were fearful, do you think? Yeah, of course. I mean, I've, you know, that's normal. And so they're, they're shocked, they're terrified. And then they had no idea what was going on.

I. Until through an angel, God tells them, and the angel says, why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He's not here, but he has risen. Remember how he told you while he was in Galilee, and notice what he they're saying is, is remember Jesus predicted this. 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 he remembered his words.

You know, I've read several commentaries who will [00:16:00] criticize Jesus followers and say they should have understood. Jesus had told 'em all this. They were little faith. But I wanna tell you, as I look at these stories, I relate to these, I can't criticize them. These women, the disciples, and I mean here, they had been shocked.

It looked like Jesus was dead. I mean, God was defeated. But what we need to see here is what the angel told them. And we need to remember is we at times need to remember the truth of God's promises. We need to remember God's words. You know, how often have we faced crises in our life that are far less the fear than the crucifixion of Jesus?

And we struggle to believe. We struggle to remember. You know, I, I'm gonna tell you, when I go through a crisis, my first thought isn't usually, I know that God still loves me and is gonna take care of me. I, I know that God is sovereign over this and God's promise that he's gonna work all things for good, and I'm just gonna trust that might be you, but that's not me.

I mean, what happens when I'm there is I'm sitting there, first of all, I often don't even [00:17:00] remember. And when I do, I say, God, where are you? God, I, these things are supposed to be true, but I don't see 'em happening. God, where, why are the wicked prospering here? Why aren't you blessing my faithfulness? Why are you allowing this crisis in my life?

And see all of us go through this reality at some time where they're in the midst of crisis and, and we struggle to remember or to believe the promises of God. And that's the issue here with these early followers of Jesus. And we shouldn't be surprised at them. And in, in, you know, when they're struggling and they're saying, you know, man, we're in despair and, and they're, they're, you know, they're in shock.

Because they look at everything they saw and they looked at it and they said, no. It looked like Jesus had gone against the most powerful rulers and he had been defeated. It's over. See, we need to remember likewise as we look back at the story, at the confusion, the frustration, the despair of Jesus, early followers, and then the hope that they found by the fact that Jesus was raised again.[00:18:00]

And we need to remember that they couldn't understand. But now when they looked at it afterwards and they talk about it, why is, why is Peter out there speaking this truth? Because they said, oh no, this is what Jesus promised. This is what he said that he would do. See, we need to realize, yes, they were discouraged, but they find hope in the truth of the resurrection because it demonstrated his sovereignty over all things.

And if Jesus was really sovereign, then. If he was sovereign, even over all the political moving maneuverings of the religious leaders, the weakness of Pilate, the betrayal of Judas, the military power of the Roman government, if he was sovereign even over death, then what will we face that in any way will threaten that sovereignty, his goodness, his plan.

What can we face that is greater than what Jesus has already defeated? My friends, we need to not only remember the promises, but we need to remember the promise fulfilled the victory of Jesus' victory over the grave. On Easter Sunday, when he arose from the grave, he for once in all defeated the [00:19:00] power of sin and death.

We were separated from God by our sins, but at the cross, Jesus took that sin upon himself, took the punishment that our sins deserve, so that by faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. As one Peter says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit, the victory of Jesus Christ isn't just over the penalty of sin, though it was also over the power of sin.

Because sin has not only put a curse over us, it has a curse in us. Death isn't just something that, that we have to face one day in the future. It's at work in our lives now. And it shows up, shows up in things like addictions and hate and selfishness and unforgiveness and dysfunctional relationships and anger and idolatry and brokenness and, and see, many of us, if we were to admit it, have to admit that we struggle with these kind of brokenness, brokenness in our [00:20:00] lives, even this morning.

And maybe you've tried to clean it up and you've tried to fix it yourself. You tried to change, you tried to do better, but none of it's worked. Right, because there's a darkness you just can't overcome. But Jesus resurrection means that there's a power in the world available to overcome that in you, not from yourself, but outside of ourself, through Jesus Christ, through the resurrection of the grave.

Paul says in Second Corinthians, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. It's not a cleaned up creation, not a reform creation, but a new creation. Now the old has passed away. The new has come, and the new is not just something that's new and better or resolving to do better, trying harder.

It's a new power, a resurrected power that is from the outside. It means that Jesus is not only able to forgive every sin because he died on the cross. It means that he can release you from the power of every sin because he resurrected from the dead. So we need to stop trying to [00:21:00] fix ourselves and admit our need before God and say, God, I need you to fix me, to transform me by your power.

That's the invitation that God gives us. Now may take a quick moment though, 'cause some people might be hearing you say, well, I'm not sure I even believe all this. And isn't this just a great story? Did it really happen? And let me look real briefly at verses nine through 12 and a little part of the story that we need to see.

And after the Angels told the women that Jesus was risen, their first thought was, man, we gotta go to all the other disciples. And they, they'll be thrilled to hear this. So they ran back. But look at what happened. We read. But these words seem to them to be an idle tale. They did not believe them. I, I love the way the New Living Translation hasn't.

It says they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. It didn't make sense, you know? And they told them and they, you know, they thought the women were crazy. And I've got a side note. You know it's not the last time that men were fools for not listening to women, right?

All the women said, amen. Okay, that's, you know, but even though it didn't make sense, [00:22:00] look what Peter did in verse 12. But Peter Rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in. He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. Now, if you're not sure about the truthfulness of this all, it might seem like a crazy idea.

It might name nonsense. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever looked into historicity of this event? I'm not just saying, close your mind. Say it because it's a religious truth and believe it because I say it and the the Bible says it. No, it's the resurrection is a historical event. And therefore we can research it by using historical rules and scientific rules.

And have you ever had the courage to actually, don't just reject it? Outreach, right? Actually do the research. If in the notes, there's some couple resources that I, I encourage you to look at, look to see if it is true, because there is more historical evidence beyond the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is behind any other event in human history.

So many people don't believe. [00:23:00] Not because you've tried it and found it wanting, but because you've never really researched it. This is the most important question we could ask, but because it is the event in human history that has the power to transform lives, it's the resurrection power, and, and we see it play out in the story of the early followers of Jesus.

I mean, what had happened, they had, they had been in despair, they had been in defeat. They're hiding in the room. They're, they're afraid of everyone. And, and, and only a little while longer, they're out there preaching on the street corners. They have incredible courage and conviction. So much so the 10 of the 11 remaining disciples ultimately were killed for their faith.

And how, what, what explains that transformation Simply that they understood that the resurrection was true, and it meant that Jesus was the Messiah after all. You see, without the resurrection, they would gather together and they would talk about the memories that they had with Jesus or, or the great teachings and, and they could remember a lot of things.

But there wasn't hope. There [00:24:00] wasn't life, life defining truth. But now because he rose, suddenly there was this reality that there was victory. They no longer had to be defined by the shame of their past sins. Their sins had been paid for at the cross. And the same is true for us today. They no longer had to be defined by their past failures.

You know, think of a Peter in his boast, I'm never gonna fail Jesus, and, and he denied him three times and he was hiding in shame. He no longer had to be defined by that. And the same is true for us today. Even in the beginning, I asked what difference does the resurrection made. I had somebody come up to me after the second service.

Says, you asked that question eight years ago. Here today, Easter Sunday, I came into this church for the first time. Somebody brought me, and I'm struggling with addiction. I was coming out of a, you know, a divorce, a broken relationship. My life was broken. And over these eight years, the resurrection power has changed me.

And she's now clean and she's married and she's got a family, and she's, I'm, I'm doing ministry amongst [00:25:00] other people, and God's using me. And what difference does it make? It makes all the world of a difference. I. Do you believe the resurrection power? Have you made it yours? Do you understand what it means?

I, I love what it says in Romans eight. What shall separate you from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword as it is written for your sake. We're being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, known. All these things we're more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of Christ our Lord. Do you believe that? Do you understand that? What difference does it make?

Ms. Miller had been trying to teach her kids about Easter and had given 'em all these little plastic eggs and said, tomorrow, bring something back in it. That [00:26:00] that gives the idea that illustrates new life. And uh, at the right time, she began to take out the basket and she opened an egg and there was a flower and said, oh, that's certainly a sign of new life.

And the next day she opened up and it was a butterfly. Oh, that, that's beautiful. Caterpillar changes and grows into a butterfly. And she opened several others. She came to the Fifth Egg and she opened it up and it was empty. And she thought, well that must be Jeremy's. He must not have understood the instructions and.

And she kicked herself for not calling his parents. And so she tried to set the egg quietly aside, but Jeremy spoke up and said, Ms. Mill, aren't you gonna talk about my egg? And she was flustered and she said, Jeremy, but your egg is empty. And he looked in her eyes and he said, yes, but the tomb was empty too.

And time stopped. And when she could speak again, she said, do you know why the tomb was empty? And he said, oh, yes, Jeremy explained after Jesus was killed. They put him in there. But when his father raised him up. And that's the best new life of all. [00:27:00] Do you think he understood the meaning of Easter? Three months later, Jeremy died, and all those who pay the respects at the funeral service were surprised to find 19 large plastic eggs on top of the casket.

All of them empty. Has Risen. Has risen indeed. If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP life slash connect. There you can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you.

Have a blessed Lord's day, and we'll see you on Sunday.