Wednesday Night - Resurrection Basics

 

Read John 3:16-17

I hope you can be here Sunday morning.  Come at 7 am for the sunrise service.  Stay for breakfast.  Come back at 11 am.

Why the change in schedule?

Once a year, we get up a little early and start the day worshipping the Lord in the assembly.  Early on the first day of the week, women went to the tomb of Jesus.  They didn’t expect that the stone would be rolled away.

In fact, some of the women discussed how they would move the stone as they walked to the tomb.  They were probably going to finish preparing the body.  They couldn’t do it on the Sabbath—you were not to work on the Sabbath.  So they came as soon as it was light on the first day of the week.

We come to worship early on the day where we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord more than other days.  We should celebrate every day, but this Sunday we make special.

Did we pick the right day?  Perhaps we got close this time as the last week that Jesus spent on this earth before his death and resurrection was the Passover Week.

But our celebration is not tied to a date but to God’s love that we know and celebrate in Christ Jesus.  What do we celebrate?

God loves us.

He loves us so much that the sacrifice for our sins was made in his own flesh and blood—Christ Jesus.

Sin may not be forgiven without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). Many animals were sacrificed each year for forgiveness, until the divine blood of Jesus was shed for us.  That was a once and for all sacrifice.

The Passover week is important because the Hebrew people remembered that death passed over them because the blood of a lamb was on the door frames of their houses.

The people crossed over from bondage to the Egyptians and followed God into the wilderness and eventually to the land promised to them. We see the imagery of crossing the Red Sea on dry land.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  Sin and death now pass over us because of the blood of Jesus.  We are no longer slaves to our sin.

We have crossed over from bondage to sin and death and have received life in Christ Jesus. (John 5:24)

Jesus was the unblemished Lamb sacrificed for our sin.  He was killed by sinful men, but we must understand that he gave his life freely to atone for our sins.  Here’s how we understand God’s plan in regards to the sinful men who brutalized and killed Jesus.

What they intended for evil, God used for good.

We call this Friday, Good Friday.  What a crazy day to call Good Friday.  That’s the day that we believe Jesus died on the cross.  How can we call this good?

His blood atoned for our sins.  As far as all of us who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that’s good for us.

But that is not the end of the story.

We celebrate this Sunday because the grave could not hold our Lord. What may have looked like a victory for evil was turned upside down in the resurrection.

Jesus rose from the dead.

Some of you have grown numb to death.  You play games and watch movies where dozens, maybe hundreds get killed.  It’s just a game.  It’s just television or the movies.

Understand that the death of a person is real—very real.  There is no life in the body, and there is nothing that you can do about it.

Nothing you can do about it!  Dead is dead.

But God can bring life to us even in death.

Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life.  If you believe in him and die, you will still live.  It will be as if you never died.

In the resurrection of Jesus is our promise of resurrection, that we will live with God forever.

That’s worth celebrating every day.  That’s worth getting up early once a year.  That’s worth lifting our voices to God and singing:

He arose.

He arose.

Hallelujah, Christ arose!

Amen.