Several years ago speaking out of conference and one of the campus ministers is an RUF conference and one of the campus ministers asked me What I was speaking about and I was a little bit embarrassed because I was talking the topic I was given was sanctification Holiness growth and holiness but my sermon was on the resurrection and I said I'm preaching on the bodily resurrection of Christ Because I think it's the absolute underpinning of everything and like I said I said that almost with a little bit of hesitation And he looked at me and he said without the bodily resurrection of Jesus this is all just a big fairytale Christianity is nothing more than a nice bedtime story And I want you to think about that I want that to kind of weigh on you that what we are celebrating today is not spring It is not new plants replacing old plants it's not replacement It is not somehow this metaphorical message of how no matter how beaten down we get we can always come back We are celebrating that Jesus of Nazareth the son of Mary died completely and physically died was laid in the grave and three days later was risen rose from the dead nothing less Without that there is no Christianity there was no reason why other movement were to formed around Jesus He didn't have that many followers he had no military conquests he hadn't written a single word Well the only words we know for sure that he wrote he wrote in the dirt and they were washed away He left us no books he had conquered no lands Christianity arose because his followers insisted that they had seen the resurrected Jesus Not envisions but physically and they were tortured for that belief They were cast out of the synagogue for that belief they were cut off from communities for that belief They were cut off from their families for that belief they were hunted for that belief and yet they never gave up on that That is the reality of it to say that the resurrection is not real is to say that the apostles intentionally lied and sought out torture and death The resurrection the physical resurrection of Jesus is God keeping his promises God keeping his promises and you need to know that this year maybe more than in years past you need to be reminded that God keeps his promises Please stand as we read the God's Word from Luke chapter 22 Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea He was a member of the council a good and righteous man who had not consented to the decision or their action And he was looking for the kingdom of God This man went to pilot and he asked for the body of Jesus Then he took it down and he wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut and stone where no one had ever yet been laid It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning The women who had come with him from Dallily followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment But on the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb But when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus While they were perplexed about this behold two men stood by them and dazzling a peril And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here but is risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise And they remembered his words and returning from the tomb they told all these things to 11 to the 11 and all the rest Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles But these words seemed to them like an idle tale and they did not believe them But Peter rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen calls by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened And as they were talking about these things Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you But they were startled and frightened and they felt they saw a spirit and he said to them, why are you troubled? Want to doubt the rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that are designed myself, touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling he said to them, do you have anything to eat here? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them and then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you all still with you That everything written about me into law of Moses and the prophets and the songs must be fulfilled Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem This is why the reading of God's holy word all men are like grass and all of our glories like the flowers of the field and the grass withers and the flowers fall but not God's word God's word stands forever, you may be seated The resurrection is God keeping his word and it's a question for us, can you hold on to that through darkness and despair? Can you hold on to it? The first thing I want you to see in this text is just love and the darkness I am, I've just been driven to distraction this week by Joseph of Arimathea He had nothing to gain, he had, he had kind of snuck by He was a person of great wealth and prominence He was a member of the high council We don't know if he was just not there, the night that arrested Jesus Maybe it was the trials held very quickly and speedily, maybe he didn't get there in time Maybe no one came and told him because they knew that he was a follower of Jesus Or maybe he was there and he just got shouted down, we don't know But he knew Jesus was dead, completely dead He didn't come to try to resuscitate him or to rescue him, he came to bury him And he made himself known, he didn't have to He could have just kept his reputation, he could have kept his standing in the community Why would you want to be associated with a crucified leader? But he went to pilot, he made himself known as a follower of Jesus And he asked for the body so that he could bury it and he gave this pretty expensive thing A tomb that he had bought for himself, he gave it to Jesus Just because he loved him, just because he loved him It's just precious to me, he couldn't stop the injustice but he risked his reputation Just because he wanted to do something kind and sweet For this man who had proclaimed the kingdom of God, a meaningless act, an act that was too late An act that couldn't accomplish anything, he just loved him I mean, try to put yourself in the disciples place, in Joseph's place You've risked everything to follow Jesus and he died You thought he was going to become the new leader of Israel and the Israelites betrayed him You thought he was going to be the one to conquer Rome and the Roman soldiers mocked him and killed him before your very eyes? I mean, this is to be honest, if you lose your faith at that point, we kind of get it, right? Why would you continue believing at that point? But he just walked through the darkness and he asked for the body in that tomb Though it seems like a meaningless act, it becomes honestly the key to the Easter message If there's no tomb, if Jesus didn't put in a tomb, he's going to be thrown out on Gehenna He's going to be thrown into a pile of bodies with all the other executed prisoners And that empty tomb becomes a very important message When Peter preaches an axe, he says he quotes David from the Psalms and he says David himself said you've not left my body to be corrupted, you've not left me in the grave But we know where David is buried, we know where that tomb is He wasn't talking about himself, he was talking about Jesus And if they'd known, if Jesus was put in a tomb, he was pointing to the empty tomb He was saying this is it, he's not there You know where he was put, he's not there If Joseph doesn't give him that tomb, then there's no evidence He doesn't know that he's doing it, he's just being faithful in the midst of darkness You see how God blesses that? You see how important that is? It's so precious when we show that faith in the midst of darkness We're just kind for no reason And then you have Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James They can't do anything to help, they're just there to watch They just watch where his body's laid They want to go back, there's no hope They're not going back to witness the resurrection They don't believe what Jesus told them They're just going back to be sweet to the body To vomit a little, to make it last a little longer To make it smell better And so they went to the tomb not hoping to find anything but a dead body They just wanted to show devotion They just wanted to love on it And without them we have no witnesses to the resurrection Without them we have no one who even notices the tomb is empty Without them we have no one to go and report this to the disciples Without them we have no one to see the resurrected Jesus Without them there is no Easter Because they believe they just love them in the midst of darkness Isn't that beautiful? In these small acts we see faith We see that faith that holds on in the darkness and into the spare And we see God using that faith to do more than we would have ever hoped or imagined Can you just love them even when you don't see any possibility that he's going to help? Can you just love him? I'm just falling in love with these people who are loving Jesus in the darkness And then we see this blindness caused by the light This confusion I mean it's amazing and it really is an important testimony That the resurrection isn't made up because nobody expected it It's not like they were all waiting and they're like Okay on the third day everyone tell everybody we see the resurrected Jesus Because no one even believed it when it happened And that's exactly how it would be wouldn't it? Isn't that... Y'all hear me say this every year I'm going to continue to say it every year We had this kind of arrogance about us when we look at people in the past And we tend to often think they were simple Like now we know people don't get up from the dead They thought that happened back then No they didn't No one's ever gotten up from the dead That's what made this such a big deal Nobody expected it to happen Nobody And they didn't believe it when they saw it And when they see the angels they think they're gardeners And they don't ask him, they don't ask the angels What was the resurrection like? They don't ask them How is Jesus feeling now that he's resurrected? They say where did you lay the body? We don't know what happened to him but we know one thing He's still dead, right? No, wrong, what? He's risen in the angels They say he's risen just as he said It's just so funny this whole thing It's so funny Living Jesus just didn't fit their categories People stay dead, nobody expected it And then the angels say these words And I want these words to be what kind of resonates with you And goes home with you He says, remember how he told you He's done just what he said he was going to do Don't you remember how he told you And he repeats Jesus's words These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you Then he was going to be buried And on a third day rise from the dead He told you it was going to happen And they didn't believe it And over and over again through this text We see that refrain come back I took out the big middle portion of the text We call it the walk to a mass And again that's been... And I'm going to talk about it next week And give you a little teaser But it's shocking to me that Jesus If you don't remember, Jesus appears to two of the people Two of the disciples They've heard their four of the resurrection They still don't believe it They're not staying in Jerusalem They're going home to a mass And the stranger appears to them And it's the resurrected Jesus And this again, it's just blown me away This is the resurrected Jesus on day one You would think he'd have some important things to do I wouldn't you? What has he spent day one doing? He spent the whole day explaining to two people That this is what the Bible says He spent all day He wants you to understand God keeps His promises And they couldn't see it If this is a movie My family's favorite sitcom You're going to think less of me After this moment If that's possible Is the rest of the development But some people get it And some people don't And our family just It's right down the middle of our sense of humor And every fourth episode or so There's this Central figure Michael He's arrogant He's self-righteous He's the only quote-unquote responsible one in the family And it kind of is But he just never listens And so there will be episodes Like this one episode where he finds out that this girl He's dating his blind But you would think he'd find out quickly And he says why? I didn't know you were blind And then there's this montage Of all the time she's saying I can't see And he's like hey, I've had so much to drink I can't see either And if the writers of the rest of the development Write the Bible That's what's going to happen here Right? There's going to be this The angel is going to say He's raised from the dead Just like he said And this guy was like What? When did he say that? Oh, you mean Right after Peter says You were the Christ and Jesus charges them Don't tell anyone And because the Son of Man must suffer many things And be rejected by the elders And the chief priest And the scribes And be killed And on the third day raised And they're going to look and go You meant that? And he's just going to say Don't you remember When we came down from the mountain of transfiguration And where I revealed that I was God, by the way And I healed this man's son That y'all couldn't heal And then I looked at all of you And I said, Let these words sink into your ears The Son of Man is about to be delivered Into the hands of men And he's going to say Don't you remember When we came down from the mountain of transfiguration And where I revealed that I was God, by the way In the hands of men But you didn't understand the saying And it was concealed from them And they went on and had an argument about who was the greatest And they're like, Well, I remember the argument Because I think I was the greatest And he's going to look at them and go You know, you remember after me telling you You remember that rich guy who came to me And I told him he needed to sell all the stuff And give it to the poor And then y'all were all worried Because you had given all your stuff to the poor And followed me And you were worried that I wasn't going to reward that And I told you that don't be worried The Father in Heaven is going to reward you 20 times over For everything you've given And then I said I will be delivered into the Gentiles And I'll be mocked and shamefully treated And spit upon Do you remember that? No We were just really thinking about all that reward I mean, to be fair, you told us we were going to get rewarded We were trying to figure out what those were going to look like Do you remember on that night before I was betrayed When I said, I see the grain as a fall to the ground and die Before it bears fruit But that was kind of a metaphor, Jesus Do you remember that great parable you love so much When I talked about the Father saying, This my son was dead and he was risen again? Yes, that was just a really good story, wasn't it? Over and over, I said it and you didn't get it We thought it was figurative, we thought it was metaphorical But we see that he redefines hope He redefines hope They had believed in any kind of resurrection except for a bodily resurrection And he actually gives them concretely, physically what they never expected Even when he's with them They don't expect it And he has to say, I'm not a ghost You can touch me Give me something to eat A phantom doesn't have flesh and blood like I have He was more solid and real than they ever imagined He completely redefines what they believed by doing exactly what he said I'm raised from the dead, just like I told you Just like I told you This was all done to fulfill what it was written of me in the prophets Now, you're wondering why I'm a labor in this, right? New York Times had an article this morning saying that everyone has hit the wall The title of the article, we've all hit the wall Monotony, laced with anxiety has caused us all to hit the wall emotionally We feel darkness We feel despair And my question is, can you be faithful in that darkness? And can you believe Can you believe that God is still going to do exactly what he said he would do? Can you believe that? I hear in a lot of places how Christianity is in decline And I want to look at him saying, you know what? The nations of this world have become the nations of our Lord and of his Christ And he will reign forever and ever Just like he said he would The earth will be covered by the knowledge of the Lord the way the waters cover the sea Just like he said he would And we are going to see it with our bodies We who have borne the image of the man of dust We will bear the image of the man of heaven We will be raised in glory Just like he said we would And the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command And we who are alive will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air And we will always be with the Lord just like he said we would And we will see a new heaven and a new earth And we will hear a loud voice coming from the throne saying Behold the dwelling place of God is with man And he will dwell with him and they will be his people And God himself will be with him as their God And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes And there will be no more mourning because death will be no more And there will be no crying nor pain Just like he said it would Just like he said it would That's why the angels greeted Mary with those words He raised from the dead just like he said he would And the day is coming when there is no more sadness And there is no more anxiety And there is no more fear and there is no more emotional scars And there is no more depression and there is no more worry I know that because he said it would And the question is can we hold onto this? Can you believe that in the darkness? Can you believe it? Please pray with me Father, we are just like the disciples They thought everything that Jesus said was figurative Or metaphorical or allegorical And they weren't ready for you to keep your promises And to do what you said you would And Father, we are not ready for you to do what you said you would And it's hard to believe And it's hard to hold on in the darkness