Thousand Oaks Baptist Church
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
(As taught in the Adult Sunday School on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007)
Text: John 20:1-29 and others
Introduction:
Today we celebrate the anniversary of one of the most astounding and important events in all of recorded history. This event is the literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And let me say first of all that we really do absolutely know for certain that Jesus Christ really did rise literally and bodily from the dead. In fact, we have independent, eyewitness accounts and written descriptions of His resurrection from the pens of at least five separate men. Each of these men knew very well what had happened.
Two of these four men had walked and talked with Jesus throughout His earthly ministry and were actual eyewitnesses of His resurrection. They actually saw Jesus after His resurrection, and they walked and talked with the risen Christ.
The third of these four men was the secretary for another eyewitness of Christ’s resurrection. He faithfully recorded the testimony of the Apostle Peter regarding the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The fourth man gathered and compiled and faithfully recorded the testimonies of many others who also were eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection – other people who saw and talked with Jesus after He had risen from the dead.
The fifth man utterly denied Christ’s resurrection and tried to imprison and kill all who believed in Jesus Christ – until he personally met the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
And as you may have already guessed, these five men are known to us today as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. And the first-hand records of what they either saw and experienced, or carefully researched, are independently recorded in the four Gospels, the book of Acts, and about 14 separate epistles in the New Testament of our Bibles.
All five of these writers were men of unquestioned integrity. Even their worst enemies admitted that their records were true. All five of them wrote with preciseness and clarity. Each wrote what he knew to be the unvarnished truth, without any fictional additions or embellishments.
And we are even told in the Bible that all five of these men were so led by the Holy Spirit in their New Testament writings that every word and every thought of their written records was inspired by God. It was without error. And even today, almost 2,000 years later, with all of the literary and scientific tools at our disposal, everything that these men wrote has still been verified as absolutely accurate and reliable and authoritative. In fact, the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most verifiable events of that day and age – far more verifiable than any extant secular history of Rome or Greece or Egypt. Taken separately or taken together, these written records – the four Gospels, the book of Acts, and Paul’s epistles - tell the remarkable story one of the most amazing events in all of human history.
And so, this morning, with your permission, I’d like to combine the four divinely inspired Gospel accounts into what I believe is a single, chronologically correct order of the events relating to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by this means, we should be able to examine this entire, amazing event from every angle, in all of its wonder and power. So let's begin.
Body of Message:
Open the eyes of your imagination, and come with me to the ancient city of Jerusalem. The year is approximately 33 A.D. Darkness is still upon the city. It’s very early in the morning on the first day of the week, the third day after Jesus Christ was crucified. We're standing in a garden on the north side of the city, in front of a cavelike tomb. A great stone has been rolled over the opening of the cave, and this great stone has been sealed to the face of the rock by order of the Roman authorities. All is quiet. The stars are still shining in the dark sky. Most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are still asleep.
In the garden, at the tomb, a group of armed soldiers from the Jewish temple guard is quietly standing watch, wide awake, and very much on duty, guarding this sealed tomb.
For you see, three days earlier, the lifeless, bloody body of Jesus Christ had been taken down off of the Cross by Joseph of Arimathaea, one of Jesus’ disciples, and with the help of the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus’ body was placed with care in Joseph’s own tomb – this very same, sealed tomb that the soldiers now guarded. That evening, Jesus’ body had been properly wrapped for burial, but it was not yet embalmed after the manner of the Jews, because sundown was at hand, and a special day of preparation would begin at sundown for the Jews, and there just wasn’t time for the embalming.
The next day, these same soldiers, sent in haste by the Pharisees, had checked to be sure that the dead body of Jesus was lying properly in its place in the tomb. Then they had made secure the great stone in front of the opening to the tomb. Then their employers, the chief priests, came and sealed the stone to the rock face of the tomb with their official seal, authorized by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
No one was to break that seal. No one was to move that stone. No one was to open that tomb until after the third day after Jesus' burial had come and gone. You see, Jesus had clearly prophesied and distinctly promised, both privately and publicly, that He would rise from the dead, and the Pharisees and the chief priests didn't want anyone - especially Jesus’ disciples - to come and steal the body of Jesus and then make the obviously outrageous claim that He had risen from the grave. The chief priests, being Sadducees, most definitely did not believe that Jesus would resurrect from the dead, and they wanted to make sure that He didn't have any outside help with any humanly invented resurrection.
And so the armed and alert temple guard had been posted at the tomb.
We need to take a closer look at this temple guard. Just what were these men? These men were handpicked soldiers. Today we would say that they were the best of the best. They normally guarded the treasury of the Jewish temple, standing guard over the priceless and irreplaceable vestments of the high priest. This was the elite corps – the special forces. These men didn't make mistakes, and they could be trusted to do what the chief priests told them to do, without fail and without excuse.
And so, for almost three days now, these soldiers had been alternating at their post before the sealed tomb, with four armed, alert, and deadly dangerous men on duty at any given moment.
But now, in the wee hours of that first day of the week, mighty events began to take place. Suddenly, a powerful earthquake rocked the city, and the guards were toppled off their feet and thrown to the quaking ground.
And while they lay helpless on the violently shaking ground, an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came right down into that garden where the sealed tomb of Jesus Christ was located. This angel's appearance was like a blinding bolt of lightning. His covering was as white as sun-dazzled snow. The angel calmly walked up to the great stone covering the tomb, laid hold of it, broke the seals as if they were whipped cream, rolled the great stone back to reveal an empty tomb, and then sat down on that great stone, as the cowering soldiers scrambled away in shocked amazement.
In fact, they were more than shocked and amazed. They were were utterly thunderstruck, stunned speechless. Matthew 28:4 says that these soldiers were so utterly terrified that they trembled – they shook in uncontrollable terror as they lay helpless there on the ground.
These soldiers had just come into intimate contact with true holiness, and they were terrified. They were in the presence of divine power, and they suddenly knew the awesome fear of God’s holiness and judgment. These battle-hardened commandos were paralyzed with terror. They became as dead men in the presence of just one of God's holy angels.
Please notice that the body of Jesus, which had been verified by these same soldiers as being in the tomb the day before, was not in the tomb when the angel tore open the sealed stone door. Why was this? It was because Jesus had already risen and had left the tomb, before the stone was rolled away. At this point, the scene fades out, and we'll return to these soldiers after a while.
Time passed. Perhaps it was just a few moments, perhaps an hour or two. The Bible is largely silent concerning this space of time, but it was still very early in the morning when the narrative picks up again, just before the first, faint glimmer of the light of dawn had begun to streak the eastern sky on that first day of the week.
In the pre-dawn semi-darkness, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus came to the garden tomb. They brought spices to properly anoint and embalm Jesus' body for burial. Another woman, Joanna, was also with them, and other women, too.
As these women approached the garden tomb, they remembered that they had forgotten to bring along some strong person to roll away the great stone. Obviously, the soldiers weren't there to help, because by this time there was no sign of the temple guard. And indeed, they had left.
But as the women approached the tomb in the pre-dawn darkness, they discovered something amazing: The stone had already been rolled away. The entrance to the cave was open, and it was very dark inside.
They approached the tomb, and two of the women – possibly carrying a lamp - squeezed inside the small rock cave that formed the tomb, to prepare to embalm the body. But the body of Jesus wasn't there. It was missing. They immediately relayed this information to Mary Magdalene and the other women, who were waiting outside the tomb.
And at this point, things began to happen very quickly.
Because, hearing that the body was missing, Mary Magdalene immediately jumped to the conclusion that Christ's body had been stolen, and so she turned and began to run back toward the city, to tell the rest of the disciples. As she ran, she came upon Peter and John, who were coming the other direction, on their way to the tomb, probably to help the women.
Mary stopped and breathlessly said to them, "They've taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've laid Him."
Hearing this, Peter and John broke into a run, heading toward the tomb, with the younger John in the lead and older Peter not too far behind. Mary decided to follow them back to the tomb, and so she followed at a distance, as fast as she could.
Meanwhile, back at the tomb, and backing up in time a little bit, the other Mary and Joanna had just finished telling Mary Magdalene that the body was missing. And Mary had taken off, running.
The two women inside the tomb turned their eyes back inside and were suddenly startled into utter silence by a totally unexpected sight. The darkness of the tomb suddenly shone with the light of Heaven's glory, and the same angel of the Lord who had terrified the soldiers, along with another angel, now appeared – right there in the tomb - to the two women. Both angels were dressed in dazzling white robes. And at least one of the angels had the appearance of a young man.
Mary and Joanna inside the tomb with the angels, and the other women peering in over their shoulders from outside, were understandably just plain scared. They were believers; they were forgiven; they were pure women now; but they were still terrified at seeing these two angels. And they bowed their faces to the earth before these two glorious creatures of Heaven.
But the first angel said to them,
"Don't be amazed or afraid! I know that you seek Jesus the Nazarene Who has been crucified. He isn't here. He is risen, even as He said He would. Come, and see the place where they laid Him - the place where the Lord lay. Why do you seek the One Who lives among the dead? But go quickly, and tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is risen from the dead; and lo, He goes before you to Galilee; there you shall see Him, as He said unto you.' Remember how He spoke unto you when He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again? Lo, I have told you!"
And when the angel finished, the two women scrambled out of the tomb and with the other women who had been outside, they all fled back into the city, their legs moved by a strange mingling of godly fear, great joy, and trembling astonishment. They were overjoyed to hear that Jesus was risen, but they were most certainly astonished at this revelation. And now they were trembling from their sudden and totally unexpected meeting with two of God's holy angels. And then there was also another little problem: Would anyone believe the story they were about to tell?
And so off they ran, stopping for nothing - until suddenly, standing right in the middle of their path, was none other than the risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He simply appeared there, standing right in their path as they ran, and He said, "Rejoice!"
The women stopped in their tracks. Then, trembling, they slowly walked the few feet to where Jesus stood and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him.
Then Jesus said to them, "Fear not. Go tell my brethren that they are to depart into Galilee. There they shall see me."
And so the women went their way rejoicing.
In the meantime, back at the garden, John had just reached the tomb. He stopped outside, out of breath. He stooped down and looked in; the lamp that the women had probably brought was probably still sitting there to faintly illuminate the interior of the tomb with its flickering flame. And there John saw the linen cloths with which Jesus had been wrapped for burial. The cloths were just lying there, collapsed, just as if Jesus had simply dematerialized out from inside of them. And there was no dead body of Jesus inside those collapsed wrappings. There was no sign of death in that tomb – other than the fact that it was a tomb.
A few seconds later, Peter came puffing up, brushed past John, and stumbled right on into the tomb. And there Peter saw it for himself. The linen cloths were lying there. The napkin that had covered Jesus' face and head was there, too, but the napkin was all rolled up in a place by itself. But Jesus' body was gone!
Then John also stepped into the tomb to get a better look. And John realized the truth of what had happened. And John believed what he saw.
However, neither Peter nor John as yet remembered the words that Jesus had spoken concerning his resurrection. And they were not yet aware of the Old Testament passages regarding the resurrection of their Messiah. But John still believed what he saw. The linen cloths were untouched. They had fallen in the position where the body of Jesus had been placed. It was just as if His body had miraculously disappeared out from inside of them. And to the young Apostle John, this spoke of a resurrection. And he believed, but he didn't say anything – not yet.
Just then, Mary Magdalene arrived back at the garden and stumbled breathlessly down to the entrance of the tomb. She had followed Peter and John more slowly.
Peter and John emerged from the tomb. They apparently said nothing to Mary. They simply left the garden and started walking back into the city. Peter was thinking angrily about grave robbers, and John was thinking about resurrection.
Mary was left all by herself at the entrance of the tomb. She, too, was still thinking about grave robbers. She stooped down to look into the empty tomb for herself, and as she did, she began to weep in sorrow. What had they done with Jesus? Why would anyone want to take His body? Who did this?
But as she looked into the tomb, it wasn't empty, after all. The same two angels who had spoken earlier to the rest of the women now made their presence known to Mary, too. Again they were in white robes, and again they sat at the head and the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been placed. And they spoke to Mary, and they asked her, "Woman, why do you weep?"
Through her tears and amazement, Mary answered, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid Him."
And she turned her face away, in the depths of grief. And as she looked out into the still darkened garden, her eyes blurred with tears, she saw Someone standing there in the shadows.
And this Someone repeated the words of the angels as He said to Mary, "Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?"
Mary Magdalene thought this was the gardener just coming to work, and so she said, "Sir, if you have taken Jesus' body away from here, tell me where you've placed Him, and I'll take His body away."
But this Someone said simply, "Mary."
This Someone knew Mary, and His voice was somehow very familiar. And Mary reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes, and she turned to get a better look - and it couldn’t be, but it was! It was Jesus! And she cried out in joy, "Master!" And she ran to Him, and tried to catch hold of Him, and to put her arms around Him, as if to keep Him from ever leaving again. But Jesus wouldn't let her do that.
Instead Jesus said, "Go to My brethren, and say to them, 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and unto my God and your God.'"
And Mary obeyed instantly, and she ran with joy to tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus Christ was alive from the dead. And somewhere along the way, she met up with the other women, and together they went to share the good news with the rest of the disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead – He was alive!
But when they got back to the upper room and began to tell their story, the rest of the disciples thought it was just idle talk by hysterical women. They couldn’t – wouldn’t - believe that Jesus had actually risen from the grave! And the scene fades out.
In the meantime, let's go back and pick up the story of those soldiers from the temple guard.
Apparently, the mighty angel left the scene temporarily, after sitting on the stone for a while. And eventually, the soldiers began to recover from their entirely unprecedented and unnerving experience in the wee hours of the morning. And so, sometime before the women arrived, the angel disappeared, and the soldiers gathered enough courage to look into the now open tomb, and they discovered that the body of Jesus was no longer there. And these shell-shocked troops decided that it might just be a good idea to let their employers know what had happened, before somebody else told them. And so some of them went into the city of Jerusalem and told the chief priests everything they had experienced and seen.
And they were telling their story to the chief priests about the same time that the women met Jesus, and about the same time that Peter and John were heading home from the tomb, and about the same time that Mary Magdalene was trying to keep Jesus from ever leaving again.
And as the soldiers related to their employers what had happened, the chief priests were simply amazed. This was the most astonishing story they had ever heard. But because they were Sadducees, they refused to believe it, and they refused to accept it. Oh, they couldn't deny or refute the eyewitness testimony of the soldiers. But they couldn't believe the soldiers' story, either, because they had already made up their minds not to believe it. They would not receive the truth, because they had no love for the truth. They would rather suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
And so the chief priests got together with the Jewish elders. And they cooked up a five-phase agenda for sidetracking any claim that Jesus had risen from the dead.
1. First, they gave the soldiers much money.
2. Second, they let the soldiers know that this very generous sum of money was to buy their silence concerning the truth of what they had seen concerning the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus.
3. Third, this money was also payment for the soldiers to spread abroad a false report of what had happened to them at the tomb.
4. Fourth, the false report that they were to spread abroad was this: "His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept." (Matt. 28:13)
5. Fifth, the chief priests and elders promised to keep the Roman governor Pilate from bringing any punishment upon the soldiers for not doing their duty and for allegedly sleeping on the job.
And so the soldiers took the money, and they did and said as they were told and paid to do.
And this false report has continued even to our day among people who refuse to believe in the miraculous, genuine resurrection of Christ. And very few people ever think to ask the question, "How did the soldiers know that Jesus' disciples stole the body if they were asleep and dead to the world when it happened?"
Well, all of these things happened very early in the morning on the first day of the week after Jesus was crucified - it would have been a Sunday morning. But now let’s move on about seven hours or so.
About noon that same day, two of Jesus’ disciples began a journey from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. Now, Emmaus is only about ten miles northwest of Jerusalem. It usually takes from three to five hours to make the journey on foot. And as these two disciples walked, they discussed all that had recently happened in Jerusalem. They talked about Jesus' triumphal entry into the city, about the arrest of Jesus, about His trial, and about His crucifixion. And now there was this amazing rumor that Jesus had risen from the dead. The women had said that Jesus was alive - resurrected from the dead - and they claimed to have seen Him and even to have touched Him. In the meantime, as far as they knew, Peter and John had said nothing about a resurrection - only that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb.
And as these two disciples walked and talked, another Man joined them disciples in their journey toward Emmaus. And He asked them what they were talking about. So they told Him.
And at that point, He turned to them and said, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things, and by this means to enter into His glory?"
And He continued on and on to expound and interpret and explain all of the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Christ and His ministry and His death and His resurrection.
And as the three of them finally came near to the village of Emmaus, the two disciples constrained this Man to stop and to eat a bite of supper with them. At first, He seemed to want to continue on, but the day was almost done, and it was time to eat.
And so the third Man stayed, and entered their house, and sat down at the table with them. And as if He were the host and not the guest, He took the loaf of bread from the table. And then He broke it. And then He gave it to the disciples - just as He had in the upper room only three days before!
And suddenly the supernatural blindness was removed from their eyes, and the two disciples realized Who was really sitting at the table with them. It was Jesus! But just as this realization dawned, Jesus simply vanished from their sight.
Within minutes, the two disciples were back on the road, as evening began to gather, heading back to Jerusalem as fast as they could go. They would tell the rest of the disciples that their Lord Jesus Christ had indeed risen from the dead. In fact, they had just walked a number of miles with Him, had just talked for a couple of hours with Him, and had just almost eaten part of a meal with Him.
By now, evening had fully come on that first day of the week. And back in Jersualem, the rest of the disciples were now hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. The soldiers had been spreading the false story that the disciples were grave robbers and body-nappers. And a lot of folks were believing that story, and they were angry - angry enough to kill the disciples, just as they had killed Jesus. And so the fearful disciples were in hiding, apparently all in one place.
But suddenly, with all the doors and windows being closed and locked, Jesus came and appeared in their midst and stood before them and said, "Peace be unto you!"
The disciples reacted the way most folks usually do when confronted with people who materialize out of nowhere. They were terrified. They figured they had some kind of wild occult manifestation on their hands. They really thought Jesus was a ghost! Is this for real? What did we have for dinner, anyway? What is this, anyhow?
But Jesus said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questionings arise in your hearts? See my hands and feet - see that it is I myself. Handle me, and see. For a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." (Lk. 24:38-39)
And Jesus demonstrated the physical reality of His literally resurrected body.
But the disciples still didn't believe that He was real. Oh, they were overjoyed to see Him, but they still weren't sure that He was for real.
And so Jesus took a piece of broiled fish, and He ate it as they watched. And then He severely scolded them for their unbelief and the hardness of their hearts. After all, they had refused to believe those who had seen Him after He was risen. And then He added these words:
"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." (Lk. 24:46-48)
And then He said again to them, "Peace be unto you. As the Father hath sent me, even so I send you." And Jesus commissioned the disciples as His witnesses - His ambassadors to a dying world of lost sinners.
But Thomas (called Didymus), one of the original twelve apostles, was not present when Jesus appeared in their midst. And when the other disciples later told Thomas about these things, he refused to believe them. He insisted on seeing for himself the prints of the nails in his Savior's hands and feet. He wanted to personally touch those wounds and to put his hand upon Jesus' pierced side. And that was that!
The next Sunday, Jesus appeared again to His disciples under similar circumstances, and this time Thomas was there. And Jesus spoke directly to Thomas, and He said, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." (Jn. 20:27)
What else could Thomas do? He believed. And he truly accepted Jesus Christ as his risen Lord – and openly declared Him as his only God and Savior.
And Jesus said to Thomas, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
Conclusion:
And this is exactly where we stand today, isn’t it? None of us here this morning has seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with our own physical eyes. None of us has had the opportunity to touch Him with our hands. But we have believed anyway, because of the written testimony of those who did see and hear and touch Him.
And because we have believed, God has blessed us with His full, free, eternal life and wonderful salvation. God has blessed us with victory over sin as we walk with Him in His will in faith and obedience.
God has blessed us with His indwelling Holy Spirit as the guarantee of His salvation. He has given us the joy of His salvation. He has given us a new and abundant life - something we hadn't even dreamed was possible before He saved us.
And you know, in a group such as this, it is possible that some sitting right here this morning are not yet saved. Perhaps you don't have God's salvation in your heart. Perhaps God's Holy Spirit does not dwell in you. You don't have His joy and peace in your soul. You don't have that abundant life Jesus promised to true believers. You don’t have Jesus in your heart. Instead, you have a fear of death, because you're afraid that Hell awaits you when you die.
This morning, God is inviting you to believe that Jesus Christ died in your place, for your sins. God is inviting you to believe that Jesus Christ rose literally and bodily from the grave to give you eternal life. God is urging you to repent of your sins and to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, right now, by faith.
Ask Him to save you from the penalty for your sins. Believe that even as you ask He will save you. And He will, in that instant of belief. I know He will, because I asked Him to save me back on March 9th of 1957, and He saved me. Others here today can testify that He has saved them, too. You can come to Him today, right now, and He will save you, too.
Jesus Christ lives; He really did come out of that tomb alive. He really does have the power to save you from every sin and to give you eternal life and eternal forgiveness and eternal salvation, if you will receive Him right now as your risen Lord and Savior.
If you have never yet received this risen Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior and Lord, why not accept Him into your heart and life right now? If you would like to do that, why not bow your heart before the Lord right now, and pray this simple prayer, meaning it with all of your heart:
"Lord, I confess that I am a lost sinner. I confess that I can never earn my way to Heaven through my own good works. I know that I am on my way to Hell, without Jesus Christ. But right now, the best I know how, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord Jehovah, and I believe that He died in my place, taking the punishment for my sins upon Himself. And I believe that He rose literally and bodily from the grave three days later.
I am repenting of my sins, I am turning from my life of sin, and I personally receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord right now. Please come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and save me now! Thank You for saving me. The best I know how, I will now make You the Lord of my life. In Jesus' name, Amen!"
If you just prayed this prayer, repenting of your sins and asking Jesus Christ to save you, He has promised to do so immediately, and He already has, if you were sincere in your prayer.
If you would like help in knowing more about what you have just done, and would like help in beginning to live your new Christian life, please contact Pastor Glen Sjoerdsma at Thousand Oaks Baptist Church or the webmaster of this website. We’ll be more than happy to help you.
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