Real Life -- Sunrise 4/4/10

April 4, 2010 (Resurrection Sunrise Service)

REAL LIFE

I am well aware that you came here to celebrate this morning. Nevertheless, I must share a very serious matter with you at this time. There are some people who have gotten wind of what I preach. To you it isn’t anything radical; it is just what the Bible says. And it’s not like I say it every Sunday. But these people understand that I say without apology that there is only one way to God, and that way is through Jesus Christ. Unless a person repents and believes in Christ, he has absolutely no hope. Yes, he will spend eternity in hell unless he turns to the Lord Jesus Christ. These people have been extremely offended for some time, but now they are ready for action. They have made it clear that if I don’t stop preaching this message, they are going to kill me.

Now before you become overly concerned, let me set your minds at ease. I do believe they will kill me, but here is the good news. In three days I am going to rise from the dead. That’s right. When you hear that they have killed me, remember that it’s only temporary. In three days you will see me again. I will die, but then I will be made alive. (Pause)

I know what you are thinking. “This man has lost his mind. Surely he can’t be serious. He must be talking about some kind of spiritual resurrection. Or maybe these are some kind of ‘special days.’ Surely he cannot be saying that after three literal days he will actually live among us again.”

Well, to be honest, no one is threatening my life. However, when we speak like this, it brings the idea of death and resurrection a little closer to home, doesn’t it. That is exactly the way Jesus talked. The people to whom He spoke heard Him saying exactly what I was saying. They didn’t have the luxury of looking back, as we do. They were faced with a flesh-and-blood Jesus who claimed that after He was killed, He would rise from the grave in three days. Sometimes we are shocked that they didn’t believe, that they didn’t understand. Don’t be so hard on them.

I. Death and Life

This morning we read from Luke’s account the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Let’s do a quick review of a few points. In 23:46 we read, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost (yielded up his spirit).” What does that mean? It means that Jesus died. When the spirit has been yielded up, there is no more life in the body. Look at verse 48, "And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." So why did they beat on their chests and return from watching Jesus on the cross? One reason -- because He had died. The man in the middle was dead.

Luke does not give us the record about the soldiers coming to break the legs of those men on the cross, but we find the details in John. Let’s read John 19:31-33…

The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 33. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

Why didn’t they break the legs of Jesus? Because he was dead. These soldiers had experience dealing with crucifixions. They knew when a man was dead.

Now back to Luke 23:52, "This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.” Why did Joseph of Arimathea ask Pilate to give him the body of Jesus? Because that body was now dead? Now verse 53, “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid." Why did Joseph lay Jesus’ body in a tomb? Because He was dead. It was the custom of the Jews to bury dead people, not those who were still alive.

We could go on and on, but surely the point is clear. Jesus was dead. So what’s the big deal? Resurrection doesn’t mean much unless we understand that Jesus was truly dead. Humanly speaking, what is so final as death? Do you remember when God struck David’s infant son with a severe sickness, assuring him that the baby would die because of David’s sin in taking Bathsheba and having her husband killed? David fasted and prayed that the child would not die. Even though God had clearly told David he would die, David begged God to spare his life. But when the baby died, David worshipped the Lord, cleaned himself up, and went and ate. Why? Because the baby died, and once the baby was dead, there was nothing more he could do (II Sam. 12:14-20). Or consider the man Jairus, whose daughter was at the point of death. He came to Jesus and asked Him to come and heal her. On the way, Jesus took time to deal with that sick woman who touched the hem of his garment. About the time he had finished there, one of Jairus’ servants came to him and said, “Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” (Mark 5:35). Of course, we know that Jesus raised her to life, but the servant didn’t know that. For him, death was final.

Lee is a doctor. From time to time, he deals with a child that is critically ill. Nevertheless, as long as there is life, there is hope. He and other medical professionals will continue to do all they can do to save that life. But when the child dies, they can do no more.

What a difference between life and death. When I was in seminary, one of my professor’s lost his wife. With tears, he told us (his students) about viewing the body with his little girl. His precious daughter looked at the body of her mother in the casket and said, “Daddy, where’s my real Mommy?” Even a child recognizes that profound difference between life and death.

Jesus was alive for better than 33 years, spending the last three years of His life carrying on a very public and highly publicized ministry. For those three years Jesus went about doing good. But a year or so before His death, He began to tell His disciples that He was heading to Jerusalem and would be killed there. Let’s read it in Matt. 20:18-19, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 19. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again." Jesus even specified that they would kill Him by hanging Him on a cross.

When it happened, Jesus was what? As we have already emphasized, the verdict of everyone involved was unified: “Jesus of Nazareth is dead.” Even His enemies remembered Him saying that He would be raised from the dead. As a result, what did they do? They persuaded Pilate to post a guard at the tomb? Why? Did they want to make sure that Jesus didn’t escape? No, that never crossed their minds. They wanted to make sure that His disciples didn’t come, steal the body, and then claim that Jesus rose from the dead. They had absolutely no fear that Jesus might sneak out. They never entertained the possibility that He wasn’t really dead. Even Jesus’ enemies were convinced that He was dead.

But then Jesus came to life. He rose from that tomb. Do you see why it was hard for even His disciples to believe it? It was the miracle of miracles. As He had raised Jairus’ daughter, as He had raised the son of the widow of Nain, as He had called forth Lazarus from the grave, now Jesus Himself was alive from the dead. What glorious news, but it was news that was hard for them to grasp. Men just didn’t rise from the dead. You remember how difficult it was for Thomas, who was absent the first time Jesus appeared to His apostles. When they told him that Jesus was risen, Thomas was skeptical at best. “I’ll believe when I can put my fingers in the nail prints and put my hand into His side.” But when Thomas was present with them at the next appearance of Jesus eight days later, Thomas’ response was, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

I ask you this morning, “Do you believe it? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the grave?” This was not some spiritual resurrection, where the spirit of Jesus hovered here and there. We read it right here in Luke. To emphasize that He was truly alive in a physical body, Jesus asked them to give Him some meat, and He ate it. Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth who died on the cross was the Jesus who stood alive before those apostles and was later seen by over 500 people at once?

There is a great difference between life and death. A dead savior is no savior at all. Even His death on the cross means nothing, if Jesus didn’t rise from the grave and if He doesn’t live today. We sang it earlier -- “He lives.” Only a risen Savior can be depended upon to come back for His own.

II. A Greater Life

So what is the point of all this? There is a great difference between life and death. I have been emphasizing the physical death and physical resurrection of Jesus, and it is essential that we understand and believe that it really took place. However, that is not the end of the story. The night before His crucifixion Jesus was speaking to His apostles in the upper room. What intensity as He shared with them. You remember how we read in John 14, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.” He went on to remind them that He and He alone was the way into the presence of the Father. Then down in verse 16 He began to tell them about how He would go away, but He would send the Comforter. Now John 14:16-19…

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

Jesus said, “Because I live, you shall live also.” What was Jesus saying? Was He saying that they too would some day rise from the grave? Perhaps, but that wasn’t His primary meaning. How do we know? The next verse: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (verse 20). Remember the context; Jesus is talking about the coming of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus would live in them through the Spirit, they would live also. They would share th very life of the Jesus who was about to die and rise for them.

Listen to me. There is a great difference between spiritual life and spiritual death. It is just as great as the difference between physical life and physical death, though we are not always able to determine the difference quite as readily. Rest assured that God sees the difference with perfect clarity. Because He was victorious over the grave, He can give us spiritual life, even life that will never die.

Here’s the question: Do I have life, or do I have a belief system? Do I have life, or do I have a religion? There is a world of difference. Let me illustrate it from the end of John 20. This comes on the heals of Thomas’ great confession, “My Lord and my God.” Let’s go ahead and read John 20:28-31…

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

So why did John write His gospel account? Was it so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? If that is our answer, we have missed the point. But that’s what he says here? Yes, that I what he says, but that is not all that he says. “That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.” This is the test of what our belief is? If there is no life in it, then it is just a belief system. It may yield deep convictions by which we live, but it is still just a system devoid of life.

So here is the great question: “Do I have a system of beliefs, or do I have the life, the very life of Jesus?” That is a sobering question. At first, it is frightening to think that I might be deceived at this point. I could have a religions system that in the end will be exposed as dead and will yield nothing but eternal death. I will hear Jesus say, “I never knew you; depart from me.” But then as I face this question about the reality of having Jesus’ life, I begin to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be this wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” As I pray and meditate on the Word of God, the Spirit of God bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God (Rom. 8:16). Then I begin to rejoice. “I have the life. This is not some religious game; I have the life of Jesus. Because He lives, I live also and will live with Him for all eternity.”

If you haven’t faced that question, I beg you to begin to deal with it today. This morning we celebrate the life of the risen Lord! Praise God! God’s desire is that we also be able to celebrate that life within us. You might ask, “How can I know if I truly have the life?” I remind you, there is a great difference between life and death. If you truly ask God to show you that difference, He will do it. What joy will be yours, as He confirms that He has given you His life.

But what if you discover that you don’t have His life, that you are indeed spiritually dead. Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). You can repent and believe. In the early church there were serious questions about whether non-Jews could be saved. But after Peter recounted the story of how the Spirit of God fell on Cornelius and those with him, we read these words in Acts 11:18, “When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” Jesus’ life is for you.

Jesus stood before the crowd on the that great and final day of the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a feast celebrating life, but it wreaked of death. In the midst of it all Jesus cried out with aloud voice: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Later Jesus would say, “I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). When we come to the end of God’s Word, we hear that same message in Rev. 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

In Acts 2 we read about how the Spirit of God came upon those early disciples at the Feast of Pentecost. These faithful followers believed in Jesus, but on that day they were given life, the life of the Spirit of Christ within. Then over in chapter 5, the apostles were preaching the message of Jesus with great power and effectiveness. The religious leaders were alarmed and arrested all of the apostles. The angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out. And what did the angel say to them? “Go, stand in the temple, and preach to all the people the message of forgiveness.” No, that’s not what he said. “Go, stand in the temple, and preach the truth of Christ’s doctrine.” No, that wasn’t it. “Go, stand in the temple, and preach the glory of Christianity.” No. The angel said, “Go, stand in the temple, and preach the words of this life (Acts 5:20).

In the name of our Lord Jesus, we proclaim the message of life. Yes, there is forgiveness, but there is no forgiveness apart from the life of Christ. Yes, there is redemption and cleansing, but not apart from the life of Christ. I love the way Paul puts it in Col. 3:1-4…

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."

If you are a child of God, Christ is your life! That is the basis for our celebration. The Jesus who lived the perfect life, died a sacrificial death as our substitute, and then rose to live forever is our very life. We are not laboring for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto eternal life (John 6:27). As Paul put it, "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Col. 1:27).