Resurrection Hope

Well, happy Easter everyone. My name is Steve Jeffrey. I'm the senior pastor here at St. Paul's

and what a fantastic day for you to be tuning in to St. Paul's and to be engaging with the

wonderful news of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This is a day that marks all days. This

is the day that celebrates, that remembers the most significant historical event ever.

This is the one that changes the course of history. And yet I acknowledge that for some,

that is not the case. In fact, a Sydney newspaper printed an article in its Easter edition a number

of years ago now. And the author, a social commentator made this comment about Easter and

about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, you know, it is a positive comment. It says

Christians celebrate new life at Easter, but in a religious sense. The focus of their festival

is the belief that tragedy and grief symbolized by the crucifixion can give way to new life,

which is symbolized by the resurrection. And that pain and loss are essential steps on the journey

towards enlightenment. And so the author suggests there that Easter is a festival of hope, a celebration

of faith in the future, a reminder that despite our failures and our frailties and our flaws,

personal resurrection is a possibility for any of us. And so for the author of that article,

a positive article, the resurrection of Jesus is in fact symbolic. Whether it happened or not

is irrelevant for him. It's an example. It's a metaphor for life, for new life and growth

through suffering. And so for some, a day like today is a great day, a metaphor for hope beyond

potentially things like coronavirus. The author represents the view of many in our society when

it comes to the resurrection. And it appears to be an intelligent, conciliatory and a rational view

for them. The resurrection is a myth that it's okay to believe if it happens to work for you.

If it helps you in life, then believe the resurrection.

Now, if you've tuned into us today, I want you to know from me right from the start,

that as I look at the Bible and as I speak about the resurrection of Jesus this morning,

I'm not merely putting another alternative in front of you. I'm not putting in front of you a

support system for life. The resurrection of Jesus is not for me a satisfying myth that helps me

interpret life and helps me live life so that it becomes livable and even enjoyable.

When I look at the Bible, when I speak about the resurrection this morning,

Easter is about real persons, historical events and divine intentions that actually happened.

The resurrection is more real and it's more exciting and more terrifying and more life-changing

than any myth or any other truth claim in the history of the world.

That's my starting point.

This Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he's alive.

He's not a memory.

A mere historical figure like Caesar or Shakespeare or Abraham Lincoln.

He is back from the dead with a glorious eternal body.

He's alive and he's reigning right now as the king of the universe and he's making this offer

of real, genuine, eternal life and hope to everyone who hears me speak these words today.

You.

So, I've got three things in mind this morning.

This is my introduction.

Three things in mind and if you've got the St. Paul's app in front of you and if you haven't,

I'd encourage you to get there.

Go to St. Paul's app and open it up and you'll find some outline there for my message today.

I've got three things in mind.

Three things that the resurrection does for us from Mark that just read out to us.

It changes our minds.

It challenges our minds and reshapes our worldview.

It changes our hearts and it gives us hope and it changes the whole course of our lives.

So, first of all, challenging minds and reshaping worldviews.

Now, the challenge to our mind about the resurrection is there in Mark chapter 16 verse 6.

Mark 16:6

Right there.

Don't be alarmed, he said.

You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene.

He was crucified.

He has risen.

He's not here and see the place where they laid him.

And so, the challenge for our minds is that Jesus, who was dead, came back to life after he was dead.

Now, the fact that he was dead, the fact that Jesus was crucified, that's not unusual.

You know, around Jesus' time in first century Palestine, there were dozens of these little movements where there was a leader who gathered a bunch of people behind him and they declared that they were the savior of the world.

And, you know, it sort of worked for a bit until in every other case, including the case with Jesus, the leader was killed.

They were executed.

And in every other case, except for the one with Jesus as its head, they just collapsed and went home.

The movement's finished.

With the leader dead, everyone just simply went back to life.

Except this one led by Jesus.

Only one movement didn't collapse with the death of its leader.

In fact, it exploded with the death of its leader.

Within 200 years, Christianity was dominant in the Roman Empire.

And to this day, right now, it is the largest and the most widely spread culturally and geographically of all religious faiths.

So what's the difference?

The Bible says the Christian church has maintained and claimed for 2000 years that after Jesus was killed, he came back to life and he appeared to his followers and many others.

That is, the resurrection of Jesus is what changes everything.

The Bible says that's why Jesus' followers didn't go home.

That's why Christianity exploded and continues to do so.

But this is the year 2020.

You know, I live in Chatswood.

It's one of the major centers of the secular city of Sydney.

And most people around me don't believe what I've just said.

And, you know, I get that.

I understand that.

You know, this is a challenge to our mind and challenge to our worldviews after all.

And so, let me just say, I want to say this gently.

It's really important not to be intellectually lazy at this point.

Dismiss the resurrection as implausible.

And you have to come up with an alternative explanation as to how this one little movement exploded like it did and penetrated globally into all different kinds of socioeconomic groups and cultures and languages.

But the others didn't.

Many want to dismiss the resurrection without coming up with a historically plausible alternative explanations for it.

So, one historical tactic is to accuse the original texts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which we've read from a couple of them this morning, as being unreliable.

Some prefer to call the historical documents legends.

And our Bible reading, which is read out to us from Mark 15 and into 16, challenges that too.

So, if you've got that open, that would be fantastic.

Three times in eight verses, I want you to see this.

Mark 15 verse 40.

Mark 15:40

Mark 15 verse 47.

Mark 15:47

Mark 16 verse 47.

Mark writes down the names of the eyewitnesses to the resurrection.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome.

Why?

Why three times?

Well, the answer of one New Testament scholar is that this has all the marks of the way that historians did history in the first century.

These women are clearly described here as eyewitnesses.

Have a look at the text with me.

At Mark 15 verse 40, some women were watching.

Mark 15:40

And again, 15 verse 47.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph's saw where he was laid.

16 verse 4.

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

Then in verse 5.

As they entered the tomb, they saw.

And then in verse 6.

See the place where they laid him.

It's pretty obvious that Mark sees these women as clear eyewitnesses to not just the death and the burial, but also the resurrection of Jesus.

But let's not forget this is first century Palestine.

Really crucial for us to keep it in its context.

And this itself creates a problem.

You see, one of the early arguments against the truth of Christianity and the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus is that it's based on the eyewitness testimony of women.

A first century Greek philosopher named Celsus was one of the early and probably fiercest opponents of Christianity.

And he wrote that the resurrection was clearly a lie because women were the eyewitnesses.

And women, according to him and the culture of that time, were regarded as hysterical and unreliable.

And so the question is, if Mark is making all this up, and Matthew, Luke, John as well, if they're making it up, why would they have put women down?

Why would they have recorded women as the only eyewitnesses to Jesus' empty tomb?

The only way to account for the women being recorded as the eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection is that they were.

And that they were writing history, not legend.

Mark has written this as an historical record of actual events.

Events that challenge the way we see the world.

Now, at this point, it's easy to go, well, okay.

It may have happened in their mind.

You know, ancient people, a little bit gullible when it came to miracles.

They don't have our modern, developed mind.

And we've learned a thing or two in the past 2,000 years.

See, it's easy to assume that their worldview was different than our worldview.

Like, in the first century, they were gullible.

And they were open to the idea of a resurrection where we're clearly not in our modern, developed mind.

And again, if you look at Mark, got that text in front of you, you see that Mark challenges us not to be too quick here,

to jump in and conclude that they were ignorant and gullible.

One thing you'll notice as you read through Mark is that Jesus himself tells his disciples quite earlier on, quite clearly,

that he will die and that he will rise again on the third day.

He does it in chapter 8 and he does it in chapter 10.

And the weird thing is the third day comes after his death.

It arrives.

It's the third day.

And it seems that no one is expecting the resurrection.

The men are sleeping in or something.

And the women have bought spices in their Woolworths home delivery.

And it's a traditional thing that you did.

You went and anointed a dead body with spices.

And so they've got the spices.

And even the disciples of Jesus aren't sitting around at breakfast time,

eating their Weet-Bix and going,

Hey guys, you know, it's the third day.

Do you think we should just go and have a look?

Just check it out.

Just in case.

Even as these women are going to their tomb,

they're wondering who's going to open the stone.

Who's going to roll it away from them.

They've prepared everything except how to get in.

The resurrection, the point is,

the resurrection took everyone by surprise.

The resurrection was just as impossible for them to believe as it is for us today.

Even their first thought at seeing the empty tomb was not that Jesus had resurrected from,

had been risen and come back to life.

But that someone had stolen the body.

So I just want to say to you,

wherever you're sitting now,

is that if you doubt the resurrection of Jesus,

I want to say,

so did they.

So did they.

But they did allow the evidence to challenge their worldview.

We need to be careful of what the Oxford Don C.S. Lewis called chronological snobbery.

It's where we think that those have gone before us,

especially those who have gone a long time before us,

were just naive and gullible and stupid.

They just believe anything.

We need to be careful that our chronological snobbery isn't an excuse for intellectual laziness

and narrow worldview assumptions ourselves.

Doubting the validity of the resurrection is okay.

But at least have an open mind to the evidence.

But also, if you want to write it off as implausible,

then at least for integrity's sake,

come up with an alternative, historically plausible reason

why this little group exploded to all corners of the globe

and changed the world for over 20 centuries.

It did not die with the crucifixion of Jesus.

The Christians, the Romans, and the Jews all agreed

that the tomb where they laid the dead body of Jesus

was empty after three days.

So what happened to the body?

Why did hundreds of people claim to have seen him resurrection

at the risk of their own life?

Why couldn't the opponents of Christianity produce the body?

Why did these early Christians joyfully give their lives

to see this message of the resurrected Jesus

spread to the ends of the earth?

So allow your worldview to be challenged.

If you do allow your worldview to be challenged,

then there's a word of mercy here.

Changing hearts and receiving hope.

There's a word of mercy and grace to your heart.

This is why looking at the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus

is so essential for us.

It's crucial for us.

This historical event is not just an intellectual exercise

of historical evidence that shapes our worldview.

It's about mercy.

It's about grace.

And it's about hope for your lives right now in 2020.

Look at this wonderful word of grace and mercy.

Have a look.

Mark chapter 16, verse 7.

Mark 16:7

Go tell his disciples and Peter,

he is going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you will see him just as he told you.

Notice what the women were not told.

They were not told, you go back there

and you tell those faithless, backstabbing,

cowardly disciples of Jesus

that if they pull their socks up,

they may well see him.

If they come back to him and they groveled to him

and they had better grovel,

if they have any hope of Jesus reinstating the movement,

then they better come back and grovel.

That's not what was said here at all.

Of course, that would have been warranted

given what they had done to Jesus in abandoning him.

But Jesus doesn't work the way you and I work.

He's forgiving them.

He's calling them back to himself

even before they had even taken any steps to repent.

You see, this is a word of mercy and grace and forgiveness.

But notice the biggest word of grace here

is simply the name Peter.

You see, there's a whole bunch of disciples.

But Peter gets a special mention.

And this is so incredible.

Peter, he's the one who said,

I will never disown you, Jesus.

I will die before I disown you.

And yet he denies Jesus three times in his hour of need.

Jesus is arrested.

And Peter, one of his keenest supporters,

abandons him.

It's a terrible betrayal by Peter.

He turns his back on God

and he runs to save his skin.

And so if the word to these women

was simply go and tell the disciples

and they had relayed that message to the disciples,

Peter may well have sat in the corner and gone,

this is not for me.

This is not for me.

My betrayal is too great.

And yet the word of Jesus

through these angels to these women,

to Peter is that I have plans for you, Peter, as well.

He was the biggest screw up.

And he becomes the biggest of the leaders

in the early days of the church.

His screw up the biggest,

his repentance the deepest,

and his grasp of God's mercy and grace to him

in Jesus the greatest.

And that is the good news of Christianity.

This is why it's mercy and grace to us.

This is the good news of Easter Day,

that salvation is by grace.

It's not by our works.

It's not by our effort.

It's not by our strength.

Salvation comes to us

by the witness of Jesus Christ dying on the cross.

Salvation comes to us by Jesus

when we admit our inability

and our weakness and our failure,

when we admit that we need a savior.

Jesus, the resurrected king,

is the savior that we need.

Forgiveness is offered to Peter.

It's offered to us

with the resurrection of Jesus.

You see, when a criminal completes a jail sentence,

they fully, completely, totally satisfy the sentence.

And when they walk out of prison,

what the law has no more claim on them.

They've paid the penalty.

They've paid the debt.

They are now free.

And Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty

for our crimes against God

because all of us are Peters.

We have all denied him explicitly

by rejecting him.

His right for his to rule over our life as our creator

or implicitly by going about our daily life

as if he doesn't exist

or doesn't in fact matter.

It's an enormous crime,

a huge crime against our maker

for which he holds us accountable

and the penalty is huge.

The sentence is death,

in fact, eternal death,

separation from our creator forever.

And Jesus stepped in for us on Good Friday.

He went to the cross for our sin

and he cried out from the cross,

it's finished.

The job's done.

He must have satisfied the penalty to its fullest

because on Easter day,

he walked out of the tomb free.

Death could not hold him down.

In Jesus, God has stamped paid in full

right across history

so that no one can miss it.

And because Jesus was raised from the dead,

God can come to us

with a word of mercy and grace and hope.

And so,

if you allow

the challenge to your minds

to change your worldview

and the word of grace

and mercy and forgiveness

to fill up your heart,

then finally,

the resurrection changes

the whole course of your life.

Easter day

does not just change our thinking

and fill our hearts,

it changes the way we live our lives.

The whole course of our lives

is reorientated

by that little word there,

go.

The resurrected Jesus,

the one who conquered death,

sin and evil

and is enthroned as ruler

of the universe,

now directs the course of your life

as your creator

and as your redeemer.

Live

with Jesus

as the gracious,

merciful,

loving master

of your life.

He sets the agenda.

He calls the shots

and he calls them

to go

and tell people

about the life

and the hope

that is available to them

in Jesus Christ.

And I think that's why

verse 8 of Mark,

it's the last verse,

it's such a shocking way

for Mark,

his account of the life

and the resurrection

of Jesus,

it's just such a shocking way

to end.

Trembling and bewildered,

the women went out

and fled from the tomb.

They said nothing to anyone

because they were afraid.

They were trembling

and bewildered on Saturday

as their hopes

were dashed

with his crucifixion.

They can't

now

be trembling

and bewildered

that death

is now being conquered.

The resurrection

changes everything.

It changes the whole

course of your life.

The resurrection

is the answer

to every single

human being's

deepest longing

and that is

to live.

to live

life

well

forever.

That's why

the beauty

in the fitness

industry

booms.

It's why you

the baby boomers

are still wearing jeans

because you still

want to be in your 20s.

We want to be young

and vibrant

and healthy

because

those were the days

before the emotional pain,

the responsibility

and the frailty.

We want to live

and we want to live

well.

One of the reasons

why it's just

so hard

for us to suffer

in this world

is that we think

that this physical

world is it

and when you lose

it,

you lose the best

and the most

precious thing.

The resurrection

gives us hope

beyond that.

This is not just it.

There is more

to come.

The resurrection

means that everything

Jesus promised

is true.

God is going

to perfectly

rebuild

the world.

The resurrection

changes everything.

There is hope

for the wheelchair

bound,

for the person

with crippling

emotional pain.

No religion

in the world

except

biblical

Christianity

promises us

new

and perfect

minds,

hearts

and bodies

forever.

Only in Jesus

Christ

can people

find such

hope

for life

now

and for life

forever.

And so

when I read

of people

in an attempt

to being helpful

and positive,

turn the resurrection

into a metaphor

for new life

and growth

through suffering,

you empty

Easter of its

hope.

Can you

imagine

the first

responders

to the

resurrection

in the first

century

going to the

poor,

to the

slaves,

to the

outcasts,

to the

diseased

in society

and saying

to them,

let me tell you

about the

resurrection.

Jesus

is a

great symbol

of our

good

triumphs

through evil

and so

go and be

nice to

one another.

Can you

imagine the

crippled and

the diseased

and the

poverty

stricken,

the

tormented,

the

outcasts

in their

state of

despair?

That's

just what I

needed to

hear.

I just

needed a

positive message

like that to

help me cope

day by day

with my

crippling

pain and

loneliness and

hunger.

you see,

the

resurrection

as a

nice

symbol

has no

power to

change

anything.

It offers

us no

hope at

all.

The

message of

Easter

is not

we are

all in

this

together

and

together

we will

all get

through

this.

It's

not even

that Jesus

will support

us and

encourage

us to

get

through

this

together.

Even if

it is a

worldwide

crisis,

the hope

of Easter

is that

Jesus

Christ

himself

is the

answer.

He is

our hope.

He is

the one

who conquered

death.

He is

risen.

He sits

as conqueror

and Lord

and King

of Kings

of all

things.

He reigns

supreme

over life

and death

and every

circumstance.

He is

risen and

promises us

the same

if we

trust in

him.

He calls

us to

give our

lives to

him and

to experience

true joy,

true freedom

and true

hope.

You see,

the resurrection

makes you

free from

this life

enough to

be brave

and

courageous

and

sacrificial

and

patient

and joyful

no matter

what the

circumstances.

The

resurrection

means you

can face

the worst

things in

life with

hope and

with joy.

The

resurrection

means you

can give

yourself to

serving God

in this

world that

he loves

and is

redeeming

and remaking

through

Jesus

Christ.

So

friends,

if Jesus

did not

rise from

the dead,

he would

hardly even

get a

mention in

the history

books.

The

resurrection

of Jesus

changes

everything

in life.

It's

because

Jesus is

risen and

reigning

that we

have plastered

everywhere

at this

church

St.

Paul's

Chatswood

that we

treasure

Jesus

for God's

glory

and the

joy of

all people.

He is

our greatest

treasure.

And so

wherever you

are watching

this stream

from,

whether it

be in

North America,

somewhere around

in the suburbs

of Chatswood,

out in

regional New

South Wales,

in parks

or the

Central Coast

or Singapore,

wherever you

are,

this message

is for

all people.

Whatever

culture you're

sitting in,

whatever your

cultural heritage,

whatever your

worldview,

whatever your

belief system,

whatever your

upbringing,

whatever your

current circumstances

in life,

Jesus is risen

and he reigns

supreme over

all.

This is a

life-changing

message.

And if you

are not

someone who

is currently

a believer,

a truster in

the Lord Jesus

Christ,

can I call

you,

implore you

to come to

life in

Jesus this

Easter.

Let the

evidence change

your mind,

let his

word of

mercy and

grace fill

up your

heart,

and let his

call on your

life change

the priorities

of your life.

Happy Easter.