Well, good morning. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Great to be with you all here this morning. Happy Easter. I want to invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 24 as we celebrate the resurrection this morning. I'm going to read from Luke 24 verses 1 through 12. Sorry, I forgot somebody gave me a Christmas card this morning. Right on time. We're talking about the resurrection. We're talking about the most important thing that's ever taken place in the history of the world. And it has more meaning than we could ever even begin to understand. And ultimately it means that our God has saved us. That Jesus has redeemed us. And we're going to be talking about the resurrection this morning as after I read this passage and I'm excited to do so because as we talk about the resurrection of Jesus I believe God is going to give us something that we all need. Something that these days can be in very short supply. And that is hope. I never thought I'd say this, but this is our second Easter Sunday during a pandemic. And when we think about that fact and then also the other, the divisiveness in our country, the injustice that we are seeing, all the different things that would take our hope and push it down. We can struggle to have hope. But when we think about the resurrection, when we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, God fills us with hope. And I believe that's what he wants for us this morning. That we would have hope because of the resurrection. So let's look at Luke 24 verses 1 through 12. Here now God's holy, true and life giving word. 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 in dazzling apparel. 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 is not here, but has 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 the 11 and to 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 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 cloths by themselves. And he went home marveling at what had happened. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful to be gathered together this morning and celebrating the risen Christ, celebrating that the Lord Jesus Christ is alive and that the resurrection has happened. And we do pray, Lord, that as we think about these things this morning, would you fill our hearts with hope as well as love and trust for our Lord? The risen Christ, we pray in Jesus name. So this morning as we celebrate the resurrection, what I want to do is talk about four reasons why the resurrection is such a source of hope for you and I who believe. Four reasons why the resurrection is such a source of hope. Number one, one of the reasons that the resurrection is such a source of hope is because it's really the down payment on a whole new world. I mean, the resurrection is absolutely cosmic. It's so much bigger than we tend to even realize. God is making all things new. God is bringing about the restoration of all things. And it began, the restorative work began at the resurrection. We see this actually in verse one. Look at verse one. Luke says, but on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared. So it's really important that we recognize that this happens, the resurrection happens on the first day of the week. All the gospel authors make sure we know that. And here's why. Because on the first day of the week is when the work starts. Here's what I'm getting at. In the book of Genesis, God establishes this pattern where you work for six days and then you rest on the seventh day. And so all your work must be completed for that week on the sixth day. And then you rest on the seventh. And then on the first day of the week, you begin work again. And that was the rhythm of work for God's people throughout all of redemptive history. And what is being communicated then about the resurrection is that work is beginning. Think about this. Jesus died on the cross, suffering the wrath of God for you and I who believe on Friday, which happens to be the sixth day, which means that when Jesus said from the cross, it is finished. He was talking about his redemptive work. He was talking about his atonement for the sins of God's people. He was talking about the payment that needed to be made in order for sinners like me and you to be forgiven. And he completed his work on the sixth day. So he said it is finished and then he rested on the seventh day, dead in the grave. And then of course on the first day of the week, as Luke says, he rises from the dead. And the message to us is the restoration has now begun. God's work of forgiving and redeeming his people is done now, his work of restoring this world has begun. And it began at the resurrection on the first day of the week. There is a new work happening, the renewal of all things. And so this includes humanity. So the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2 that in Christ God is making this new humanity. And it also includes the world itself. So in Revelation 21 5, Jesus says, behold, I am making all things new. This is why the resurrection is such an incredible source of hope. As we think about how messed up the world is, we think of the resurrection as the down payment on the fullness of the restoration that is yet to come. And we have hope knowing that no matter how dark things get, one day God will finish this work of restoration. And this world will be made completely new. There's a man in Charles Ellis. He's a tremendous sports fan and everybody that knows him knows that. But he has this very interesting habit. Because most of the games that he would want to watch take place while he's at work, he records the games. Now, most people, when they record a sporting event, they fight very hard to not find out the score beforehand. But not Charles. Every time the Charles records a game, a sporting event, he actually looks and sees what the score is before he watches the game. And if his team loses the game, he usually doesn't even watch the game. But when he knows that his team won the game, then he sits down with his popcorn, he puts his feet up, and he watches the entire game. And people have said to him, Charles, I mean, what is the fun in that? And he says, oh, it's the best. Because the whole time when I'm watching the game, no matter how bad it looks, no matter how much it looks like my team might lose, I know the whole time that we're going to win. And it is awesome. And that's a big part of why God wants us to know about the resurrection, to believe in the resurrection of Christ. It is the down payment on the fullness of the restoration of this world that is coming in Christ. And so no matter how dark it looks in our society, no matter how much it looks like evil is winning, you and I can know that we're going to win. God is going to win. God is going to bring about the renewal of all things. That is a source of great hope. Number two, the resurrection is a source of tremendous hope because it proves that everything Jesus taught is true. Look at verse two. It says, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And 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 in dazzling apparel. These were angels. And as they were frightened, they bowed their faces to the ground and the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the son of men must be delivered into the hands of simple men and be crucified and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words. What a powerful moment. These women were absolutely convinced that when they got there, they would find Jesus' body and they would finish the burial preparations. But instead, there's these angels there dressed in dazzling white, telling them that he's not there and they're not only telling them that he's not there, they're also reminding these women that Jesus had told his disciples, told his followers, this would happen. And as you look through the Gospel narratives, at least three times, so maybe even more, but at least three times, Jesus clearly, clearly, clearly told his disciples, I'm going to die and then I'm going to rise again. I've always wondered what the tone was when these angels spoke to these followers of Christ. You know, was it remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the son of men must be delivered into the hands of simple men or was it a little remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee? But here's what happens. They do remember. In that moment, look at verse 8, it says, and they remembered his words and suddenly it rushes in and they remember, yes, that's right. He told us this. Now, history records, there's a number of people who said that they would die and then rise again and they died. Period, but Jesus said he was going to die and then rise again and he did die and he did rise again, which means when he taught that, it was absolutely true. And what that means is we can believe that everything he has taught is true. And this is huge for us and this is such a big source of hope for us because Jesus taught all the things that our hearts truly longed here. Number one, he taught that if we trust in him that we are forgiven of all of our sins, not by anything we do, but only through what he has done for us. He taught that he would die for us, pay for our sins so that we can simply have the love of God. And if we believe in Jesus, then we are forgiven and we can believe that because everything Jesus taught is true. He also taught us that he would give us rest for our souls and we can believe that he does give us that rest our souls need. He said he would give us peace and we can believe for sure Jesus is the source of peace for us. He promised that he would give us the Holy Spirit. So we can be assured that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us to empower us, to direct us, to guide us. We can be sure of our own future resurrection. No matter what happens in our lives we can be absolutely sure that we will rise again from the dead as well because Jesus promised Jesus taught that all his followers would rise again. We can be certain of eternal life because the one who said he would die and then rise again did die and rise again. And he also promised that we would have eternal life and we can be absolutely sure of God's unending, unstoppable love and grace and kindness towards us in Christ. You know, there's so many people who think that these promises sound great but they think there's no way that would ever be extended to me. I've messed up too many times. I've done too many things wrong. I'm too big of a sinner. That those things can't be for me but they are. They are. The same one who said he would die and rise again and did die and rise again promised these things to all who choose to trust in him no matter what their life is like. No matter what they've done no matter how many times they've messed up we remain absolutely priceless to God. You know there was this college professor once who took out a hundred dollar bill and he held it up in front of the class and he said who wants this. And as you might expect everybody's hand went up and so he took it and he crumpled it up and he threw it on the ground. And he said okay who wants it now and everybody's hand went up. And so he walked over and he stepped on it kind of mashed it into the floor, picked it up through it and the garbage took his coffee, poured the coffee into the garbage can on top of it. And then he said okay who wants it now and sure enough every hand goes up why. He was teaching them no matter what happens to that hundred dollar bill it's still worth one hundred dollars. And what we have to realize is no matter how messed up our life is no matter how stained our life is Jesus taught that whoever trusts in him is absolutely loved by God is absolutely forgiven by God is absolutely priceless to God. And when you live every day knowing that you are absolutely priceless to the creator and sustainer of all things that gives you hope. And number three another reason that the resurrection is such a powerful source of hope is because of all the evidence this is one of the things that a lot of people don't realize there is substantial evidence for an actual physical resurrection of Jesus. And I'm just going to mention a couple of the historical evidences here but I would encourage you to look into this because God wants us to in fact look at verse nine and following it says that the women go back and they tell the apostles about what has happened and then look at verse 12 it says but Peter rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. In other words Peter in that moment he wanted to go see for himself he wanted to see the evidence he wanted to see the empty tomb and the grave clothes laying there he went and looked in God wants you and I to look because he has providentially left evidence so that we might believe and have hope one of the strongest sources of evidence according to historians would be the eyewitnesses. Later in Luke's gospel here he will say that Jesus appeared physically with his disciples they talked they ate together you possible Paul will talk about in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared was there in the flesh talking to many different disciples at many different places one time there was 500 people there and the way that Paul writes that as if to say at that time anyway hey if you don't believe it go ask any of these 500 people that were there. These eyewitnesses of people who saw Jesus in the morning in the afternoon in the evening when they were eating when they were talking when they were walking all these people saw Jesus and what we don't have is evidence to refute that we don't have any evidence of people saying no it didn't actually happen they those people didn't actually see that. The eyewitness accounts number two another strong piece of evidence for the reality of the resurrection is the fact that the first witnesses were women and here's why that matters at that time period women had nowhere near the status in society they do here in our society. In fact women's testimony was not even admissible in court in this time period in that place. So scholars say that if you were making something up and you wanted it to spread the last thing that you would have done is say that the first people to witness it were women and said what that does because of the unbelievable rapid growth of the Christian faith even though the first witnesses were women that lent itself to believe that it must have actually happened it must have spread so fast and far because people actually saw the risen Christ. Now third Jesus witnesses his apostles and many of his followers that did see him suffered greatly here's another strong piece of evidence because they had actually seen him in the flesh because they knew that he was truly alive when the followers when his apostles were beaten and tortured and threatened and even crucified upside down as legend says Peter was. They did not recant they did not turn away as they suffered for what they knew to be true they could have at any point just said okay I made it up I made it up it's a lie but they didn't because they had actually seen the risen Christ and while people will suffer for something they believe nobody suffers for something they know to be alive. The historians say that that is good source of evidence that it really did happen and I would challenge you if you've never studied it here's a short book you can read very short actually the case for Easter by Lee Strobel and then a new book that just came out hope in times of fear by Tim Keller he talks all about the resurrection and the meaning of Easter and Tim Keller is a great author so maybe you want to look into one of those but the good news is that the resurrection is a source of hope because there's so much evidence for it. The resurrection is such a source of hope for you and I who believe because of the way it teaches us about God's power to give new life so that no matter what is going on right now no matter what we've been through we can always look to him for new life. If you look at Peter one more time verse 12 he rose he ran to the tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. Now that marveling only began right there and then as Peter interacted with the resurrection resurrected Christ he was transformed he had a totally new life he became a totally new person his life was filled with purpose and meaning. He became so courageous after having been such a coward and that's for you and I as well as we throw ourselves at Christ trusting in Christ he gives us new life because what happens when we believe in him when we choose to repent turn away from the life of sin and self trust and really trust in Jesus what happens is we're handing our life to the one who knows how to make it into something beautiful who knows how to give new life. You know one of the most famous musicians of the 19th century was a self taught Norwegian violinist named Oli bull that means more to me than you because I'm Norwegian but nonetheless Oli bull self taught Norwegian violinist he was a composer and an artist of absolutely amazing skill he toured all over Europe and America very successfully and at one time he was the most world renowned violinist on the planet. But not everybody knew who Oli bull was and there's a story about one time Oli was in Europe and he was walking through the woods and it got dark and he got lost and so he ended up finding his way to this little cottage or little house and he knocked on the door and this old man opened the door and let him in and he told him that he was lost and the old man said well come on in let me get you warmed up get you a meal and then you can even stay here if you want. So Oli goes into this man's house and they share a meal together and then they're sitting by his fireplace with this blazing fire and this old man having no idea who he's sitting with he pulls out this old rickety mard and scarred violin and he starts kind of plucking on the strings trying to make some music and Oli after he listens to the guy for a minute or two he says could I could I try. And the old man says well I don't know this is kind of a piece of junk and I've been trying to get it to make good music for a long time but here try it if you want and in the world's greatest violinist tunes the violin real quick draws back his bow and begins to play the most beautiful music this man had ever heard it filled his house it was so beautiful this old man literally began to saw begin to weep and that old scarred and mard by the
violin that he'd never been able to make music with was now the source of the most beautiful music he'd ever and because Jesus rose from the dead and because he has paid for our sins and because he gives us the Holy Spirit and because he has the power to give new life when we take our scarred and mard lives and hand them to him we're handing them to the master we're handing them to the one who knows how to take our brokenness and make beautiful. Beautiful music out of it for he can give us new life and that gives us hope if we trust him if we have turned from our life of sin and self trust and put our faith in the one who died and rose again who's paid for our sins who makes us new and who is making the world new. So hand your life to the master and let him make the beautiful music let's pray father thank you. Thank you for your grace thank you for your kindness to us thank you for rescuing us in Christ thank you for the forgiveness that we have and thank you for raising the Lord Jesus from the dead thank you that it's the down payment on this new world that you are bringing about. Thank you that it proves that we can trust everything Jesus said thank you for all the evidence that points to a real true resurrection and thank you for proving and showing to us in the resurrection that you can give new life we praise you and thank you now and forever in Jesus name amen.