| “Who Said the Dead Don’t Rise?” Luke Chapter 24 Pastor Don Baron |
| Sermons |
You might think that any preacher worth his salt would have an easy
time preparing an Easter sermon.
I have a confession to make.
I find it one of the hardest to prepare.
After all, you know what I’m going to talk about.
- no element of surprise
- you’ve heard it all before, right?
- how can I say anything new?
I asked myself: Exactly what do I want to happen to my listeners
tomorrow?
I’m going to tell you what I wrote:
“I want people to come away, 1) freshly convinced that Jesus is really
alive and 2) excited about at least one way that Jesus’
resurrection makes a difference in their personal lives.
So this morning, I’m excited about that.
I truly want those two things to happen to you..and me.
And the way I’m going to do it is to walk us thru the resurrection
chapter in the Gospel of Luke: chapter 24.
P. ___________________
Let’s start with Purpose #1: that you come away freshly convinced
that Jesus is truly alive.
I want you to see that those who claimed to be eye witnesses were no
gullible primitives, as contrasted with us sophisticated 21st century
people who know better.
WE know that the dead don’t rise.
There are 4 scenes in the drama of that Sunday morning.
Scene 1 is the women: vv. 1-8 (read)
In v. 1 we see them bringing materials for a good 1st century Jewish
burial.
They come with no expectation other than that there would be a
corpse in a cave.
They would give it a more decent burial, because they, like us, know
that the dead don’t rise.
v. 4 They find the cave empty. Did they shout, “He is risen! He is
risen indeed”?
No, it never entered their minds.
It says, “they were wondering about this.”
v. 8 Only after the trauma of falling to the ground in fright is their
memory jogged and they recalled what Jesus predicted before He
died.
Scene 2 concerns the 11 disciples – vv. 9-12 (read)
The women rush in to tell what they’ve experienced.
What’s the response:
Is it: “O hallelujah! He’s risen, just as He said!”
Oh, no.
v. 11 (read): Why this response?
Easy: They too knew that the dead don’t rise.
v. 12: Peter goes out to see the tomb.
Good ol’e Peter – He’s better than the others, right?
He’s thinking maybe Jesus IS alive, right?
Wrong.
He’s just curious.
What’s gotten into these women?
He sees the strips of linen that had been wrapped around the corpse.
Think for a moment about those strips of linen.
If someone had moved Jesus’ body, there is no reason why they
would have unwound the strips of linen, would there?
Furthermore, the strips were NOT unwound.
The words, “lying by themselves” means “empty” – lying there
without the corpse that had been wrapped around.
It was as if the body inside had just evaporated and the
strips had collapsed in place.
Yet, with the evidence SCREAMING at him, Peter know the dead
don’t rise.
He merely goes away “wondering to himself what had happened,” but
not for a moment entertaining the thought that Jesus was alive.
Scene 3 is about two of the disciples.
Let’s read this by sections.
vv. 13-16 (read)
v. 16 – “kept from recognizing Him.”
Simple. The knew that the dead don’t rise.
I can’t help but thinking they must have glanced at His face and
thought, “Hm, how similar this man’s face is to Jesus.”
…and then they sank back into their grief.
…because everyone knows the dead don’t rise.
vv. 17-24 (read)
v. 17 – “faces downcast” – deep depression.
v. 21 – “we had hoped” – they had hoped that Jesus was the promised
Redeemer…
…”BUT” – they imply – “we were obviously wrong.
What good is a dead redeemer?”
All this DESPITE vv. 22-24
…the report of the women
…the confirmed empty grave
These two were so unimpressed by the news of the empty grave that they
hadn’t even bothered to hang around Jerusalem and investigate further.
No, when you’re dead, you’re dead – and they were going home and
try to put their lives together again…WITHOUT Jesus, who
sadly was a total disappointment.
vv. 25-29 (read)
I think the two men at this point were thinking something like this:
“Let’s see now.
• the women said Jesus is alive.
• now this man – whoever he is – is convincing us that the
OT actually predicted the death and resurrection of the
Messiah.
I don’t know what this all means, but let’s hear more.”
And then it happened: vv. 30-32 (read)
v. 30 How many times had they seen THAT action?
• Jesus took bread & gave thanks & broke it & fed 5,000
people
• No doubt He did it daily at meals.
• Just this past Thursday evening, He took bread, gave
thanks & broke it and said, “This is my body.”
The two men’s eyes are as big as saucers.
They gasp and look at one another, as all the facts fall into place.
They no doubt shouted, “It’s He!”
And He disappeared.
v. 32 Now they understood, and they rush back to town.
vv. 33-35 (read)
The disciples have begun to believe.
But it’s still second-hand information.
Peter has seen Him, they say.
time preparing an Easter sermon.
I have a confession to make.
I find it one of the hardest to prepare.
After all, you know what I’m going to talk about.
- no element of surprise
- you’ve heard it all before, right?
- how can I say anything new?
I asked myself: Exactly what do I want to happen to my listeners
tomorrow?
I’m going to tell you what I wrote:
“I want people to come away, 1) freshly convinced that Jesus is really
alive and 2) excited about at least one way that Jesus’
resurrection makes a difference in their personal lives.
So this morning, I’m excited about that.
I truly want those two things to happen to you..and me.
And the way I’m going to do it is to walk us thru the resurrection
chapter in the Gospel of Luke: chapter 24.
P. ___________________
Let’s start with Purpose #1: that you come away freshly convinced
that Jesus is truly alive.
I want you to see that those who claimed to be eye witnesses were no
gullible primitives, as contrasted with us sophisticated 21st century
people who know better.
WE know that the dead don’t rise.
There are 4 scenes in the drama of that Sunday morning.
Scene 1 is the women: vv. 1-8 (read)
In v. 1 we see them bringing materials for a good 1st century Jewish
burial.
They come with no expectation other than that there would be a
corpse in a cave.
They would give it a more decent burial, because they, like us, know
that the dead don’t rise.
v. 4 They find the cave empty. Did they shout, “He is risen! He is
risen indeed”?
No, it never entered their minds.
It says, “they were wondering about this.”
v. 8 Only after the trauma of falling to the ground in fright is their
memory jogged and they recalled what Jesus predicted before He
died.
Scene 2 concerns the 11 disciples – vv. 9-12 (read)
The women rush in to tell what they’ve experienced.
What’s the response:
Is it: “O hallelujah! He’s risen, just as He said!”
Oh, no.
v. 11 (read): Why this response?
Easy: They too knew that the dead don’t rise.
v. 12: Peter goes out to see the tomb.
Good ol’e Peter – He’s better than the others, right?
He’s thinking maybe Jesus IS alive, right?
Wrong.
He’s just curious.
What’s gotten into these women?
He sees the strips of linen that had been wrapped around the corpse.
Think for a moment about those strips of linen.
If someone had moved Jesus’ body, there is no reason why they
would have unwound the strips of linen, would there?
Furthermore, the strips were NOT unwound.
The words, “lying by themselves” means “empty” – lying there
without the corpse that had been wrapped around.
It was as if the body inside had just evaporated and the
strips had collapsed in place.
Yet, with the evidence SCREAMING at him, Peter know the dead
don’t rise.
He merely goes away “wondering to himself what had happened,” but
not for a moment entertaining the thought that Jesus was alive.
Scene 3 is about two of the disciples.
Let’s read this by sections.
vv. 13-16 (read)
v. 16 – “kept from recognizing Him.”
Simple. The knew that the dead don’t rise.
I can’t help but thinking they must have glanced at His face and
thought, “Hm, how similar this man’s face is to Jesus.”
…and then they sank back into their grief.
…because everyone knows the dead don’t rise.
vv. 17-24 (read)
v. 17 – “faces downcast” – deep depression.
v. 21 – “we had hoped” – they had hoped that Jesus was the promised
Redeemer…
…”BUT” – they imply – “we were obviously wrong.
What good is a dead redeemer?”
All this DESPITE vv. 22-24
…the report of the women
…the confirmed empty grave
These two were so unimpressed by the news of the empty grave that they
hadn’t even bothered to hang around Jerusalem and investigate further.
No, when you’re dead, you’re dead – and they were going home and
try to put their lives together again…WITHOUT Jesus, who
sadly was a total disappointment.
vv. 25-29 (read)
I think the two men at this point were thinking something like this:
“Let’s see now.
• the women said Jesus is alive.
• now this man – whoever he is – is convincing us that the
OT actually predicted the death and resurrection of the
Messiah.
I don’t know what this all means, but let’s hear more.”
And then it happened: vv. 30-32 (read)
v. 30 How many times had they seen THAT action?
• Jesus took bread & gave thanks & broke it & fed 5,000
people
• No doubt He did it daily at meals.
• Just this past Thursday evening, He took bread, gave
thanks & broke it and said, “This is my body.”
The two men’s eyes are as big as saucers.
They gasp and look at one another, as all the facts fall into place.
They no doubt shouted, “It’s He!”
And He disappeared.
v. 32 Now they understood, and they rush back to town.
vv. 33-35 (read)
The disciples have begun to believe.
But it’s still second-hand information.
Peter has seen Him, they say.
Scene 4 – now a larger number of people are involved –
The disciples “AND those with them”
And there He stands.
vv. 36-44 (read)
Their minds race to explain what they’re looking at.
“It LOOKS like a body,” they think, “but the dead don’t rise.”
The best explanation they can come up with in their befuddled
minds is that they are seeing an apparition of some kind.
v. 39 “touch me,” says Jesus. “I have flesh & bones. I’m real.”
v. 40 He shows them His hands & feet.
Why? They bore the scars of crucifixion.
This was not only a body.
It was the body of only one person – one who had been
crucified.
Their minds are spinning.
Dead men don’t rise – especially crucified ones.
vv. 41-43
He goes a step further, and eats in their presence.
It it’s certain that the dead don’t rise, it’s even more certain
that disembodied spirits can’t eat!
Do you see the point of all of this?
These witnesses to the resurrection are not gullible people.
Nor are they concocters of a hoax.
The best witnesses are reluctant witnesses – and that they are –
dragged with heels dug into the ground, to the point where, despite
the fact that the dead don’t rise – this dead man has risen.
Our witnesses are reliable just because of their natural resistance to the
ridiculous idea that Jesus was alive…
…just because they share with us the deep-seated conviction that
the dead don’t rise.
That’s why a great British legal mind like John Singleton Copley
could write:
I know pretty well what evidence is and I tell you, the evidence for Jesus’
resurrection would win the day in court.
I wanted to send you away today freshly convinced that Jesus is alive.
Have I succeeded in my mission?
You’ll have to be the judge of that.
I’m affirming before you that the Christian faith is not built
on religious speculation.
It’s not just one nice religious option among many.
We’re talking about something that really happened.
If it didn’t happen, then the Christian faith is hogwash.
But if it did happen, then you need to face up to your
relationship with the Risen One – or your lack of such
a relationship.
He’s available to you this morning.
welcome Him into the deepest recesses of your heart
and personality, and watch what happens.
__________________________________________________________
And that brings us to the second part of my purpose this morning,
which is to send you home excited about at least one way in which
Jesus’ resurrection makes a difference in your personal life.
I could choose to focus on vv. 45-49 (read)
Here’s a focus for your life – in a world where most people no longer
know why they’re alive.
Our society has made us the most affluent society in history – more
comforts, more pleasures, more technological breakthroughs than
our great-parents could have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Yet is has left us empty and restless on the inside.
We have sold our souls and trapped ourselves in a lifestyle that
gives us no time or energy to think about questions like
Why am I here?
What’s the meaning of it all?
Is there anything that’s really worth living & dying for?
Where will it all end for me?
We use noise to replace thought, like the TV that blares senselessly
even when no one is watching.
We fear being quiet or being alone with the thoughts & questions that
well up from deep within
Here’s a focus for your life, built on the solid fact that one very
important dead man is alive.
Here’s meaning & purpose for you and your life roles as someone’s
Friend
Spouse
Parent
Child
Employee
Employer
Neighbor
Here’s a way to concentrate your life on something that will still be
of great value 100 years from now, namely, using your callings
in life to help people discover why they’re alive.
It’s becoming a woman, a man, for others…because He’s alive.
That way, your life will go on sending ripples out long after you’re
gone.
Or I could focus on vv. 50-53 (read)
Here are lives that have experienced the deep fulfillment of joy, praise,
worship – of a life brought into union in the here and now with the
living Christ…
…a vibrant relationship that paints all of life with bright colors, with
the power as well as with the serenity to live the good life.
…not a make-believe polyanna life that makes believe that everything
if OK when it’s not…
…but a life that engages the real world with gusto because it has
first been in personal touch with the One who made it all and
has redeemed it all.
Or finally I could simply focus in on the powerful fall-out from Jesus’
Resurrection – unspoken, yet screaming from this chapter:
What’s that?
The abolition of the fear of death.
You can claim that you’re not afraid to die.
But the psychologists tell us that deep down every human has an
acute fear of ceasing to exist – even if we’re not conscious of it.
They tell us that this fear haunts us deep down – drives us –
Depresses us when we don’t know why we’re depressed –
Does mischief in our inner being.
This morning’s news tells us that, of the millions of graves that pock
mark this planet, there is one that is decisively empty.
It is the guarantee that what God did once in a graveyard in Jerusalem
He will one day repeat on a grand scale for the world – for you
and me.
Against all the odds, the irreversibility of death & decay has been
reversed!
To the certainty that the dead don’t rise, you may add today two
certainties that cancel the first one out:
Jesus’ empty grave
And your own.0
The disciples “AND those with them”
And there He stands.
vv. 36-44 (read)
Their minds race to explain what they’re looking at.
“It LOOKS like a body,” they think, “but the dead don’t rise.”
The best explanation they can come up with in their befuddled
minds is that they are seeing an apparition of some kind.
v. 39 “touch me,” says Jesus. “I have flesh & bones. I’m real.”
v. 40 He shows them His hands & feet.
Why? They bore the scars of crucifixion.
This was not only a body.
It was the body of only one person – one who had been
crucified.
Their minds are spinning.
Dead men don’t rise – especially crucified ones.
vv. 41-43
He goes a step further, and eats in their presence.
It it’s certain that the dead don’t rise, it’s even more certain
that disembodied spirits can’t eat!
Do you see the point of all of this?
These witnesses to the resurrection are not gullible people.
Nor are they concocters of a hoax.
The best witnesses are reluctant witnesses – and that they are –
dragged with heels dug into the ground, to the point where, despite
the fact that the dead don’t rise – this dead man has risen.
Our witnesses are reliable just because of their natural resistance to the
ridiculous idea that Jesus was alive…
…just because they share with us the deep-seated conviction that
the dead don’t rise.
That’s why a great British legal mind like John Singleton Copley
could write:
I know pretty well what evidence is and I tell you, the evidence for Jesus’
resurrection would win the day in court.
I wanted to send you away today freshly convinced that Jesus is alive.
Have I succeeded in my mission?
You’ll have to be the judge of that.
I’m affirming before you that the Christian faith is not built
on religious speculation.
It’s not just one nice religious option among many.
We’re talking about something that really happened.
If it didn’t happen, then the Christian faith is hogwash.
But if it did happen, then you need to face up to your
relationship with the Risen One – or your lack of such
a relationship.
He’s available to you this morning.
welcome Him into the deepest recesses of your heart
and personality, and watch what happens.
__________________________________________________________
And that brings us to the second part of my purpose this morning,
which is to send you home excited about at least one way in which
Jesus’ resurrection makes a difference in your personal life.
I could choose to focus on vv. 45-49 (read)
Here’s a focus for your life – in a world where most people no longer
know why they’re alive.
Our society has made us the most affluent society in history – more
comforts, more pleasures, more technological breakthroughs than
our great-parents could have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Yet is has left us empty and restless on the inside.
We have sold our souls and trapped ourselves in a lifestyle that
gives us no time or energy to think about questions like
Why am I here?
What’s the meaning of it all?
Is there anything that’s really worth living & dying for?
Where will it all end for me?
We use noise to replace thought, like the TV that blares senselessly
even when no one is watching.
We fear being quiet or being alone with the thoughts & questions that
well up from deep within
Here’s a focus for your life, built on the solid fact that one very
important dead man is alive.
Here’s meaning & purpose for you and your life roles as someone’s
Friend
Spouse
Parent
Child
Employee
Employer
Neighbor
Here’s a way to concentrate your life on something that will still be
of great value 100 years from now, namely, using your callings
in life to help people discover why they’re alive.
It’s becoming a woman, a man, for others…because He’s alive.
That way, your life will go on sending ripples out long after you’re
gone.
Or I could focus on vv. 50-53 (read)
Here are lives that have experienced the deep fulfillment of joy, praise,
worship – of a life brought into union in the here and now with the
living Christ…
…a vibrant relationship that paints all of life with bright colors, with
the power as well as with the serenity to live the good life.
…not a make-believe polyanna life that makes believe that everything
if OK when it’s not…
…but a life that engages the real world with gusto because it has
first been in personal touch with the One who made it all and
has redeemed it all.
Or finally I could simply focus in on the powerful fall-out from Jesus’
Resurrection – unspoken, yet screaming from this chapter:
What’s that?
The abolition of the fear of death.
You can claim that you’re not afraid to die.
But the psychologists tell us that deep down every human has an
acute fear of ceasing to exist – even if we’re not conscious of it.
They tell us that this fear haunts us deep down – drives us –
Depresses us when we don’t know why we’re depressed –
Does mischief in our inner being.
This morning’s news tells us that, of the millions of graves that pock
mark this planet, there is one that is decisively empty.
It is the guarantee that what God did once in a graveyard in Jerusalem
He will one day repeat on a grand scale for the world – for you
and me.
Against all the odds, the irreversibility of death & decay has been
reversed!
To the certainty that the dead don’t rise, you may add today two
certainties that cancel the first one out:
Jesus’ empty grave
And your own.0
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