The resurrection of Jesus Christ - what does it mean to you?

Sermon notes from Sunday 5 April 2015

Luke 24 verses 1 – 12

As we come around to another Easter time again it is the weekend when we remember in particular the work of the cross.  Jesus Christ the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.  Jesus dying on the middle cross was dying to pay a great debt.  It is your sin and my sin that brought Jesus from heaven to that lonely place called Calvary to die for us.  Peter said “Jesus who his own self bare our sins in his own body he bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2 verse 24).  “He paid a debt he did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.”  He picked up the bill there at Calvary.  Let’s not take it for granted what the Lord did for each of us.  When I think of the cross of Calvary I think of the suffering, beating and bruising, the torture in the judgement hall, how he was spat on, whipped and taken out to the cross for the shedding of his blood.  If suffering was enough that would have been enough but it wasn’t enough.  It took the shedding of his blood to forgive your sins and my sins.  The sacrifice of the cross is for my life.  The just dying for the unjust. That was what he was doing.  Think of the sufficiency of the cross.  This was the plan God had from eternity past.  God could raise him from the dead that was what sealed it.  His suffering and his agony was for the shedding of his blood that we can be saved today.  It is to the tomb we want to look again.  We see the mystery, miracle and mission that have come from that – “go quickly and tell the disciples”.  Tell what you have seen in evidence.  Today I want to speak of the resurrection.

The resurrection is a central theme.  When those woman went to the tomb they saw the stone was rolled back, they couldn’t see the body of Christ.  Then the angel came and said “you seek for Jesus he is not here, why seek for the living among the dead?  He is not here he is risen.”  Resurrection is the central theme on which the church is built.  The early sermons of the apostles didn’t waste any time in getting to the cross and the resurrection.  We see how God was satisfied with the death of his son.  If he had not been satisfied with that death then Jesus would not have been raised from the dead.  Peter on the day of Pentecost in that upper room, the Holy Spirit came down and they went out into the streets and began to proclaim the gospel.  The people were amazed at his words.  When he preached about the life of Christ, his miracles, his death then he got around to the resurrection.  The pangs of death could not hold him.  The resurrection was the central message to his preaching.  Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 said “the gospel I preached unto you … by which you are saved … or I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins … And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures … If Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins.”  In Acts 17 the apostle Paul was preaching to a great intellectual audience.  What happened – they mocked him and laughed at him.  Paul knew how important the resurrection and said it was to the salvation of his soul.  Paul knew how important the resurrection was to the gospel message but people didn’t realise this.  They didn’t realise it was the foundation of the gospel message by which they could be saved.  The full gospel.  Jesus came into the world as a sinless being.  He took our place on the cross of Calvary but you need to take on the resurrection power.  They still mock and try to chip away at the foundation message.  “If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11 verse 3)  We need to plead and pray today to ensure that the gospel message is truth.  Today the Lord’s name is being discredited.  The Lord’s day is under attack.  Family life is also under attack.

The resurrection is a current thought.  It is not a doctrine for the first generation but is a current thought in every day.  Jesus Christ is alive and is seated at the right hand of his father in heaven ever living to make intercession for you and I.  He is praying for us and the situations we face today.  He said to Peter “Satan hath desired to have thee but I have prayed for thee.”  He ever liveth to make intercession for you.  Think of the significance and importance of the women who went to the tomb.  They heard the message “he is not here, he is risen.”  It gives me comfort to realise and acknowledge and to know the one I am trusting in has broken the chains of death, is alive and is in heaven praying for me.  When I gather with other believers around this communion table the current thought is of a Saviour who is alive for evermore.  Jesus said “this do in remembrance of me.”  John the Baptist was exiled to the Isle of Patmos for taking a stand for Christ.  He heard God telling him “I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for ever more.”  The place that holds the mortal remains of Queen Victoria and her husband Albert has the words “here at last I will rest with thee, with thee in Christ I shall also rise again.”  The current thought is he hasn’t forgotten about me.  If he were to come at this point in time he would take those who are saved and take them into the presence of Christ for ever.”

The resurrection confirms the truth.  In John 17 when Jesus was praying for his followers he praised the God of heaven for sanctifying them.  The only way to be sanctified is through God’s word.  “Thy word is truth sanctify them through thy word.”  Jesus was praying for you and I that day too “neither pray I or these alone but for them also which shall also believe on the message through thy word.”  What does he pray for?  To set them apart.  That is what sanctification means.  He was praying for you and I.  It is as relevant today as then.  The moment you are saved you are called out from this world.  The word also means to make pure, to make holy.  Jesus Christ was praying for his people.  For a separated people, a pure people, a holy people, a sanctified people.  I wonder where you stand today?  Are you separated from the world?  Has he made your heart pure?  We can be today.  He is not here he has risen.  The empty grave confirms it.  Matthew 16 verse 21.  When I turn to John 14 Jesus is speaking of his death and says “I will come again.”  Jesus told his disciples that he must suffer, must be killed and must rise again the third day but then he says “I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.”  This is Christ’s word.  One of these days that word will be confirmed when he comes again.  He cannot lie today.  I wonder are you saved today?  Are you ready whenever he comes to break the clouds, when the trumpet will sound, the archangel will give the shout – will you be ready to meet him in the air?

The resurrection is a crowning testimony.  They mocked him in the Judgment Hall, put on a crown of thorns on his head, paraded him, beat him until he was barely recognisable.  The Pharisees came in and said “we remember he claimed he would rise again on the third day so seal the tomb.”

The resurrection is a challenging test for those who are saved.  The angel said “go and tell.”  Did you tell someone in this past week that Jesus is alive?  He is not in the tomb but in heaven now.  Could I leave that challenge with you.  Have you told anyone that Jesus is alive and alive for evermore?