The Resurrection Movement

Good morning. I am so excited to celebrate Jesus and his resurrection with you today.

I just want to jump right into some of the best good news verses in all of the Bible.

So I'm going to forgo like trying to be funny or taking a like a creative illustration

to start, but I want to share with you some awesome history from Matthew 28.

Even if you don't like history, like these verses have a way of grabbing your attention.

So I want to start with that. Matthew 28 verses 1 through seven.

Matthew 28:1

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb.

Suddenly there was a violent earthquake because an angel of the Lord descended

from heaven and approached the tomb.

He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightning

and his robe was as white as snow.

The guards were so shaken from fear of him that they became like dead men.

But the angel told the women, don't be afraid because I know you are looking

for Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here for he has been resurrected just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead.

In fact, he is going ahead of you to Galilee and you will see him there.

Happy, happy Easter, everyone.

How wonderful in history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant

historical event of all time.

I suppose when Jesus returns, that that will rank right up there.

But until then, this, the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest event to ever happen in history.

And there is no shortage when it comes to proof that Jesus has risen from the dead.

Of course, the Bible talks about it and we're going to talk about it,

but also history books talk about it. And several of these historians who recorded

these facts of his, they were not like Jesus freaks and zealous for him.

As a matter of fact, they weren't followers of Jesus at all.

So they had no reason to lie. They had no reason to make it up.

The resurrection of Jesus has been 100% fact checked and you can check it out for yourself.

And at this resurrection, a movement began.

And now for some 2000 years, it is sweeping across the globe.

It's the resurrection of Jesus movement. And it has no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Places like Africa, Latin America, Asia, a region of the world known as the

global South. It is booming with Jesus' resurrection movement.

I mean, certainly if you look through history, there's always been these seasons

and these spikes in the movement when it comes to the spreading of the gospel

and Christian growth around the world.

And oh, God willing, like America will have one of these upcoming seasons of

experiencing this spiritual awakening, like it's never had before.

That would be amazing, wonderful for our homeland.

But make no mistake about it.

Jesus is building a kingdom and it's a worldwide kingdom.

It's a kingdom that is so vastly different from any other kingdom that we have

ever seen or ever will see.

And at the foundation of his kingdom is his resurrection.

The verses in Matthew 28, they aren't going to be the main verses for this morning,

but I do quickly want to point out a few things and share from them. They are so, so good.

Like, they're not so, so good. They're so, so good. And I want to share them.

And then I do want to move on to a few other verses.

So Matthew, just like Mark, Luke, and John, they give some details about the first Easter.

And notice a very simple but significant detail in verse one,

saying, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning.

The resurrection of Jesus happened on a Sunday, and that's significant.

Like if you've ever wondered why, why is Easter always on a Sunday? That's why.

Like it totally makes sense why on designated Easter Sunday,

like today, there's a little bit of an uptick in church attendance.

I think that is true for here today, this morning.

We look around and we see that. But here's what you need to know.

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the other 51 Sundays as well.

Like, let me tell you about the resurrection of Jesus movement.

It is not the kind of movement that gets people together one time a year.

That is a lame movement. That's a weak movement, puny movement,

wimpy movement. I don't even know if it's a movement at all.

As a matter of fact, the celebration of this unmatched greatest historical event

ever, it is a daily celebration.

It's a 365 kind of celebration. And here's why.

Because what Jesus has done for people who believe in him and trust him and

are following him and have a relationship with him and who repent to him and

who get forgiven for him and seek him,

those kind of people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every day.

It's that kind of movement.

But on Sundays, we do get together in bigger groups because the resurrection

of Jesus took place on a Sunday.

It's the main reason why we meet on Sunday still today.

So I guess I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. There are a lot of jokes about

people who only attend church on Christmas and Easter.

But if we're gonna be serious about the resurrection of Jesus,

we need to meet regularly and worship together. and Sundays are a great day to do that.

It's not the only day, I understand that, but it's the day that Jesus kicked

off this whole movement was on a Sunday.

Second, I want you to notice in verse two that Mary Magdalene and the other

Mary, they went to view the tomb and suddenly there was a violent earthquake

because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb.

He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it.

The Marys were going to view the tomb. Like other writers include that they

took spices with them and they were going to put them up on the body of Jesus,

which I guess is a little challenging to think about.

Like there's this huge stone in front of the tomb. How are they going to get in there?

That's another discussion for later, right? They were going and they were expecting

to find a dead person. And boy, were they shocked.

First, they were shocked at seeing an angel. Like, did you notice how the angel

descended with an earthquake? Whoa.

If you've lived in Florida for any time, when maybe you know that when the space

shuttle comes back into our atmosphere, we hear the little sonic boom,

like that's pretty cool.

But here we've got an angel that descends into our atmosphere and an earthquake takes place.

I don't know if that happens all the time for all the earthquakes that happen

over there in California and other parts of the world, but at least this one time.

Came. What an incredible way to announce your arrival.

But here's the thing. The angel did not come to remove the stone to let Jesus out.

He removed the stone to let the ladies in.

The people were the ones who benefactored from the stone being rolled away, not Jesus.

And another thing, I don't know why, this is just personally,

this is Doug Davidson 101, one. Take it or leave it right here.

But when I read these verses, I picture this angel sitting on this huge stone,

like totally loving the moment.

Having this smug, overly confident swag to him.

I think that he's kind of, he's kicked back.

He has just watched the brave guards, strong and mighty, turned to straw men like they were dead.

And certainly he has to be incredibly excited to share this good news with the ladies.

So I don't know. Like I said, that is just Doug speaking out loud of what that must have looked like.

I don't know his demeanor, but starting in verse five, he says,

ladies, don't be afraid because I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has been resurrected just as he said.

Come and see the place where he lay.

Well, this is a good place. I'm going to stop right here for a second, just a little pause.

I grew up in a church with a tradition that one person would stand up here in

the front on Easter Sunday, and they would say, he has risen.

And then all the other people, if they knew the answer, they would respond to

that. So I'm going to see how you know this, right?

So if you know the answer, I want you to respond for me. Ready? He has risen.

Oh, you have done this. You know about this. All right. If that's new to you,

welcome to the tradition.

Like this happens on Easter. So here we go. Let's just do it one more time. He is risen.

Thanks for keeping the tradition alive for me. I like that.

Some of you entered, like coming down the hallway, you said to me,

he's risen. Yeah, he's risen. We got a big one coming.

Like, I'm glad that, and that is true. These verses right here,

the angel declares he is risen. He is risen indeed.

And the third thing, look here what the angel says in verse seven.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead.

In fact, he's going ahead of you to Galilee and you'll see him there.

So the angel gives these ladies some instructions. Come inside,

take a look-see, check it out.

He's gone. Do you see him? Nope.

Go tell your friends. Go tell his disciples that he is risen.

In fact, tell them that Jesus is on his way to Galilee and you'll see him there. Why Galilee?

Because Jesus is taking a victory lap and going home is where it begins.

Don't you love victory laps?

Like I'm not totally into NASCAR, but I've watched the guy win.

And he takes this lap and he's crazy driving around doing all these fancy donuts

and burning rubber and all the people, ah, we won, we won. It was a victory lap.

Now I do relate more to my Philadelphia Eagles who won the Super Bowl a few months ago.

And they took this huge parade, downtown parade. Yes, we won,

we won, we won. It was a victory lap.

As a matter of fact, the last time the Eagles won a Super Bowl,

nine months later, there was a gigantic baby boom of babies being born. They were celebrating.

That's true, Dustin. You check it out. Like, look at the population growth in Philadelphia.

And then recently, summer right here in Florida land, you were celebrating the

Gators basketball team. They came home from San Antonio.

Champions, woo-hoo, here we go, here we go. They won game after game from coming behind.

Like, we love victory laps. But to be clear, these kind of victory laps don't

match the victory lap that we're talking about with Jesus.

There's an astronomical difference between coming from behind and winning the

game and rising from the dead.

It's very safe to say that Jesus's victory lap is the greatest victory lap of all time.

For the very same reason that his resurrection is the greatest historical event of all time.

It is unmatched compared to anything else.

And his first stop was scheduled for Galilee.

I think it was the official resurrection tour had begun.

And these ladies who got up early on the morning, Sunday morning,

are now in charge to make sure others are there to join in the movement.

It was in Galilee where Jesus grew up. It's where he started public speaking,

started his teachings, it started where he was healing, he was training disciples.

And now Jesus, once crucified, dead, buried is back.

And his disciples are with him. The boys are back in town.

It's the original.

And it starts an amazing movement.

The transformational change of these disciples going from hiding and afraid, nervous, scared.

To now bold, confident, public, everything

changed for them because of the resurrection of Jesus' movement.

Now for the rest of the time this morning, I wanna just make two points about

Jesus' resurrection and this movement.

Two, Jesus spent a lot of time teaching his disciples.

On one occasion, Jesus is teaching them, and this was before his resurrection,

and he was teaching them that they could trust him with everything with their life.

Anything and everything, you can trust me, guys. You could trust me.

And he used an example of how sheep, they trust a shepherd for their well-being.

And he said, I am the good shepherd.

Like, trust me. And then he said these words in John 10, verse 17 and 18.

John 10:17

I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up,

take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

So here's point one, the resurrection of Jesus.

Was never in doubt. The resurrection of Jesus was unstoppable because Jesus is unstoppable.

His victory is unstoppable. His movement associated with his resurrection, it is unstoppable.

Jesus guarantees this. So why, hey, why do you make such a big deal about Jesus? This is why.

And yet there have always been people trying to stop him.

Like we started this morning by reading Matthew 28, beginning with the resurrection of Jesus.

But do you know Matthew 27, the verses that come just before that,

there are people who are trying to stop him.

As a matter of fact, they're trying to stop him and he's already dead and they're

still trying to stop him because they knew. I wanna read them to you, verse 62.

The next day, which followed the preparation day, so that would be Saturday,

the Sabbath, the chief priest and the Pharisees, those would be the spiritual

leaders of Israel's day.

Okay, they gathered before Pilate. Pilate would be a Roman official.

And they said, sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive,

he said, after three days, I will rise again.

They were concerned. So they make this plan starting verse 64.

Therefore, therefore, give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day.

Otherwise, his disciples may

come and steal him and tell the people he has been raised from the dead.

Then the last deception will be worse than the first.

You have a guard of soldiers, Pilate told them. Go and make it as secure as you know how.

And then they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting the guard.

Now, to be clear, no one, including the Pharisees here, thought that Jesus was like a little bit alive.

Everyone knew he was dead, dead. The Romans were experts at killing people, right? He was.

So you can't think like, oh, Jesus was almost dead and he was in the tomb and

he kind of got a second wind. He got revived and then he busted out of the tomb.

No, Jesus was dead.

But man, they gave it their best shot.

It was hopeless then, and it is hopeless today.

The world may sink that Jesus has done, that he's washed up,

outdated, out of the way, not relevant, whatever.

But try as people may try.

You can't keep him buried. You can't keep him down. Can I have John 10 back up on the screen again?

I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me,

but I lay it down on my own accord.

No one can keep him down because no one knocked him down.

He chose to lay down his life. And he goes on and says, I have the authority

to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again.

Jesus volunteered to die. He alone allows himself to be buried.

And the reason that he can get out of a tomb is because no one forced him into the tomb.

His death, his burial, and his resurrection were totally on his own terms.

The resurrection of Jesus was never in doubt.

And now, despite some 20 centuries later and the world trying their best and

doing all they can to stop and to destroy him. It is futile.

It is hopeless. It is pointless. It is impossible. It can't be done.

No one can hold him down. No one can hold him in. They can't silence him. They can't limit him.

Jesus is alive and free to go and come wherever he wants.

That is great news for Jesus. Well, what about us? Why does that matter?

Good for him. That's a great question. And the answer is this.

Because Jesus is unstoppable, you and me and everyone, we ought to trust him with our lives.

You should trust him with your life because the resurrection of Jesus was never

in doubt means your resurrection is never in doubt.

Now, this idea of trusting Jesus, it's one of the central themes all of the Bible.

It's found all over throughout the Bible. trust Jesus, trust Jesus.

One of the places it's found is in 1 Corinthians 15. And specifically here,

it's talking about trusting Jesus and his resurrection.

The entire chapter is fabulous. Like if you want a homework assignment, write it down right now.

1 Corinthians 15, I need to read this explanation point. It's good.

Today, this morning, I only want to show you two verses as it pertains to why

we should trust Jesus and his resurrection. It's verses 21 and 22.

Here's what they say. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of

the dead also comes through a man.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

So Adam is responsible for bringing death into the world. Why?

Because he sinned against God.

And anyone related to Adam, and if you don't know this, in some weird,

sordid, twisted way, we all get traced back to the founder, Adam.

And we all have the same consequence for sin, death.

As a matter of fact, Mario introduced, he's talked about, we're starting a new series next week.

You really ought to be here on how it started. Like if you want to get on a

ground level zero, this is it.

And when it comes to Adam, he'll probably be talked about in multiple sermons

coming up. For sure, part three. That's what I'm talking about right now.

So for now, just connect the dots with me. Because Adam, the first human, sinned, now we all sin.

Like we have been contaminated with sin. It's in our DNA.

And because of the sin, we all die.

The other person listed in this verse is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is responsible for bringing the resurrection of the dead into the world.

And why is that? Why Jesus?

Because he's the only perfect one capable of doing this.

The standard was perfection. Jesus was the only perfect one.

His death is the perfect sacrifice for sin.

And his resurrection guarantees not only your resurrection, but everyone's resurrection,

which leads to point two.

And the last point for this morning, The resurrection of Jesus means eternity is for everyone.

Eternity is for everyone. But where?

Everlasting life is for everyone. But where?

Fathom this thought. You will never go out of existence.

You will never stop existing. That's the impact the resurrection of Jesus has on your life.

Everyone is impacted by the resurrection of Jesus.

Everyone will exist forever because of the resurrection of Jesus. But where?

That's what makes this movement unlike any other movement ever.

Now the resurrection of Jesus the resurrection of the dead

was often a hot topic in

the early days of the church and once there was a guy known

as Paul he's Apostle Paul he's a very famous person in the Bible he wrote like

two-thirds of the New Testament one time he was having to give defense of believing

about the resurrection and a bunch of other things all the things that God was

saying that this is the truth he was trying to defend that he was doing it to

a Roman governor by the name of Felix.

And Paul makes this comment in the middle of his defense. It comes from Acts

24, 15. I want you to see it.

He said, there's going to be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous.

Again, I want you to see everyone gets resurrected because eternity is for everyone.

That includes now the righteous and the unrighteous.

The same idea is taught in other places throughout the Bible.

One being John chapter five. I want you to see that as well.

Verses 28 and 29, right? Jesus talking says, don't be amazed at this because

the time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out.

Those who have done good things to the resurrection of life and those but those

who have done wicked things to the resurrection of the judgment.

It's really important that everyone knows no one dies then stays in the ground forever.

No one dies and then returns as someone or something else.

It's important to know that everyone will hear his voice and they will know

it's God and everyone will come out and be resurrected.

So that's the first thing I want you to see. But I cannot leave these verses

without explaining what does it mean to be righteous and unrighteous like it says here in Acts 15.

And what does it mean to do good things and to do wicked things as it says in John chapter five?

Because if you look at verse 29 of John five, everyone spends eternity in either

one of two places, either in the resurrection of life or in the resurrection of judgment.

Like just saying them out loud, resurrection of life, resurrection of judgment.

One sounds fantastic and one sounds horrible.

And it seems obvious. Tell me if you disagree with this. It seems obvious.

It's the righteous and those who do, have done good things, that they go to

the resurrection of life.

And it seems obvious that the wicked and those who have done wrong things,

the unrighteous, they go to the resurrection of judgment.

And it begs asking the question, what makes a person righteous or unrighteous?

What's the deciding factor whether something is a good deed or a wicked deed.

Do I get to choose this for myself? Do you?

Do you get to decide for your own life? Oh, this is good and this is wicked.

Do you get to do that? Who gets to call that shot?

It seems like we try to do that right now in our culture and that doesn't go

so well. Well, I think it's this and I think it's this. We have a standard.

God is the standard.

And that's true whether you believe it or not.

And it's important to know this, that it's not eternity that is at stake here.

You are guaranteed of that.

What's at stake here is where you spend eternity.

Now, sometimes to understand the Bible, you must keep reading.

And so that's what I want us to do. I want us to keep reading and I want us

to move to 2 Corinthians 5.21 because here, it's a fabulous verse.

It's going to explain, well, how can a person be righteous or unrighteous?

And here's what we get. 2 Corinthians 5.21.

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us so that we might become

the what? the righteousness of God in him.

God made the one. God made it.

So Jesus, the one who never knew sin to be sin for us so that we might become

the righteousness of God in him.

That's the way. That's the only way a person becomes righteous.

Well, how does this happen? How does this work? On the cross,

Jesus took our sin upon himself.

He purchased our salvation. And the purchase price was his life.

Jesus, you must bleed out and die.

That was the price. In Romans 5, 9, it describes our purchase salvation like this.

Much more than, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood,

We will be saved through him from wrath.

That phrase, we are declared righteous through his blood, means Jesus imputed

his own righteousness to us.

Now, imputed, Doug, kind of weird, different, maybe fancy word,

right? Here's what imputed means.

Imputed means he credited us with his own righteousness so that we will be righteous.

Like we are not righteous at all. No way.

It's only when Jesus puts his righteousness on us that it is credited to us.

And now we are declared as righteous. It's an amazing miracle.

He got all of our sin and we got all of his righteousness.

This righteousness is given to anyone who believes jesus christ to be their savior,

so not everyone gets this imputed righteousness only those who are trusting

him and putting their faith in him it's the person who understands that jesus

died on the cross for their sins and in doing so,

Jesus takes that righteousness and he puts it on the center and that's what

makes him righteous. That's what a Christian is.

That's imputation. That's giving of Jesus's righteousness to sinners.

So we can say Christians are legally righteous people because God credited the

righteousness of Christ and he put it on our account.

That's how a person is saved. And that's the only way to be declared a righteous

person. Any other way, nope, unrighteous.

And so when we, then again, Jesus says in John 5, 29, very interesting verse,

that those who have done good things go to the resurrection of life.

It's important not to take this single verse out of the context of all of John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

Otherwise, it's going to sound like salvation and eternal life in heaven,

that they can be earned by doing good things. And that is not what Jesus ever teaches.

Ever does he teach that. He teaches the exact opposite of that.

Jesus teaches that salvation and eternal life in heaven, that they are a gift from God.

And there is no working that you can do, I can do, anyone can do that's going to earn them salvation.

So again, let me point out a verse that he also said in John chapter 5,

John 5:24

verse 24, just five verses earlier.

And he said, anyone who hears my words and believes in him, who sent me has what?

And will not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The good things done in verse 29 are the result of believing Jesus to be your savior and your Lord.

It is not a person earning his way to Jesus.

So if we come full circle back to the resurrection of jesus and we realize,

it was never in doubt and we realize eternity is for everyone and the determining

factor of whether a person will spend eternity either in the resurrection of

life or the resurrection of the judgment,

the determining factor hinges on the righteousness of Jesus imputed upon you.

Because you believe in Jesus and you are trusting Jesus with your life.

You are trusting that he died on the cross for your sins.

And doing good things has nothing to do with it.

That's the gospel.

Because the resurrection of Jesus was never in doubt and because everlasting life is for everyone,

Jesus's desire is for you to be part of the resurrection movement.

He wants you to be part of it in a way that it leads you to the resurrection of life.

And here's the really good news if you have that and you know that.

If that is you, you take your victory lap every day.

And as you're taking that victory lap, tell every person you see about the unstoppable

Jesus and the resurrection movement.

Let's pray.

Father, it is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And I thank you for making Easter possible.

I don't even know what it'd be like, how horrible it would be without the resurrection

of Jesus and the hope of having eternal life.

Not the hope so like I think it's gonna happen, but the hope in believing in

you that it's gonna happen.

And I thank you for not being a mystery but that you can be known and loved,

and that you first loved us.

Being thankful and grateful people, it's always a wonderful trait to have,

But it is incredibly amazing to be thankful and full of gratitude for you to give up Jesus,

to have him crushed on a cross.

To bleed,

for the sins of human beings.

What a mighty and powerful God you are,

that death cannot contain you.

Sin is not too big for you.

Thank you for being our creator and our sustainer. And I pray that it would

be true that you would be our savior as well.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Let me end with this verse from John 11, 25 and 26. Jesus said,

I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. everyone who lives and

believes in me will never die ever that's good news.