Easter 2025

0:00 What a great celebration so far. It's been so good. Thank you to the choir, the kids choir, for leading us. I was just thinking, isn't it amazing that we've got two choir pieces this morning and both of them come straight out of Glen Abbey. The Gardeners and the Gettys are the writers of both those songs. So it's great that we have such gifts and talents leading us in writing and performing those songs. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul is incredibly stark with his words about the resurrection. Here's what they say, or here's what he says.

0:39 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. And he goes on then and repeats again, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost and if only for this life we have hope in Christ we are of all people most to be pitied. Christianity minus the resurrection according to Paul is useless, is futile, is pitiable. At best it is powerless and pathetic At worst, it is a terrible deception, a scandalous fraud. It is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth on that Sunday that is the central claim of Christianity. Take that central pillar away and it all comes crashing down, is what Paul is saying here.

1:38 In his letter to the Romans, he makes that clear. if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So, if you're here this morning, perhaps, as I said at the beginning, you're one of those people that were dragged along here on Easter Sunday. Perhaps you've come of your own volition. Perhaps you're happy to be here to think about and consider these big questions of faith and God and Christianity. Perhaps you're a young person here who has come with parents, has grown up in church, but you have questions and you're thinking through all of this stuff for yourself. Well, this is the central question that you've got to decide on. Because to be honest, if your answer to this one is no, none of the rest of them really matter.

2:37 The core question you need to decide on is, do I believe that Jesus rose from the dead? And to help you in thinking that through today, here's what I want to do. I'm not going to give you some special formula of three points or five points or 10 points that will help you believe in the resurrection. And what I simply want to do is walk you through the three eyewitness accounts that we've read through already this morning from that first Easter Sunday that Luke, one of the biographers of Jesus' life, presents to us. And if you don't know already, Luke was both a physician and a historian. And over the years and the centuries, he's been much maligned. but then what happens is new archaeological evidence appears which actually confirms the stuff that he talks about in his gospel. He is a historian of the first class and in the opening of his gospel account he explains what he is writing and why.

3:37 Here's what he says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus. Theophilus commissioned this from Luke. He was a friend of Luke, a Roman official, so that you may know, he says, the certainty of the things you have been taught. So that you may know from my orderly account the certainty of the things you have been taught. so if you're here and you're asking these questions this morning this is where you need to start and then for those of us here the majority of the room of course who already claim and proclaim that Jesus is Lord who already say know in their hearts that God raised him and believe in their hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead what what's our prayer what's our hope for today as we listen to these old familiar stories? Well, it's that line in the second story, isn't it? Were not our hearts burning within us?

4:58 Were not our hearts burning within us? That is our prayer, that our hearts would burn, that the flame of our faith, however strong it is this morning, Whether it's burning bright, whether it's weak and flickering, whether it's just embers on the great, our prayer for ourselves as we come to these familiar stories is that by the fuel of the word of God and the oxygenation of the breath of the Holy Spirit of God, our hearts would be re-fired, that they would burn bright. again on fire with Jesus, on fire for worship, on fire for his mission. So let's look then at the combination of the progression of these three Easter Sunday episodes that Luke presents to us. We've got dawn at the tomb.

6:00 We've got an afternoon walk away from Jerusalem. And then we've got an evening gathering in Jerusalem. And obviously I only have a certain amount of time this morning. I can't go into all of these in any major detail, but if you're interested in getting into this stuff a little bit more, let me recommend a couple of books to you. One big and one small. This will depend on how much you like reading and how much you're prepared to pay as well. But big, they look the same size on the screen, but they're slightly different. Okay, big, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by a man called Richard Bochum.

6:39 Fantastic read in terms of just seeing the historical credibility of the Gospel Accounts. Brilliant book. And so I'd certainly recommend that to you. And then small, Rebecca McLaughlin's Is Easter Unbelievable? Little bit easier probably to read. And if you are a visitor here, Or if you are here and you think you'd love to give one of these away, on the shelf on the right, just as you go out into the foyer, we've got a number of copies of that. Please feel free to take that with you and read it. So episode one, Dawn at the Tomb, that was read so beautifully by Rebecca and Zara and Daniel earlier.

7:25 A group of women followers of Jesus, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, arrive at the tomb. Luke tells us it's the second time that they've been there. They were at the cross on Friday. They had experienced the horror of seeing their Lord die on the cross. They then had followed Joseph of Arimathea, who took the body from the Roman authorities, from the cross to the tomb. This tomb that he owned, that was carved into rock, this tomb that had never been used before. This was the first body to go into it. and the only one, all important details to be recorded by an historian.

8:08 Then they had gone back home on that Friday, and in the midst of their grief, they had prepared spices and perfumes in readiness to embalm Jesus' body. But of course, it was Friday evening. The Sabbath was beginning, so they had to wait in this long period of sorrow across Friday evening, all of Saturday, until first dawn on Sunday. And then they were making their way back to the tomb, ready to embalm the body. But of course, when they return, what do they find? They find the stone has been rolled away. They find that there is no body inside the tomb. But Luke makes it very clear.

8:47 I think sometimes we might forget this. None of the women actually see the empty tomb and exclaim, he is risen. Now that message is given to them by two angels. And it's actually not a celebration. It's a rebuke to them. Listen, why do you look for the living among the dead? He's not here. He is risen.

9:09 Why are you surprised? They're saying to these women, do you not remember what he told you back in Galilee before the journey to Jerusalem that the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again? He told you. Do you not remember what he said? And of course, because they had no category for this, they hadn't. They had heard the words, but they hadn't heard the message. And so the women come back from the tomb to the 11 disciples. They tell them what has happened.

9:43 And again, does anybody cheer and shout, he has risen? No. They conclude that this is a rational nonsense produced by a combination of grief, emotional exhaustion, and female hype. Peter has to see for himself though when he runs to the tomb he finds the linen that Jesus was wrapped in but no body but again we don't get a he is risen we get confusion and we get bewilderment and we get wondering but we do not get acceptance of the angel's message there's so much we could say about this first episode but in my time let me just highlight a couple of things The first is concerned then with the historical credibility of this account. It's to ask ourselves if Luke was not constrained by the eyewitness accounts available to him. If he was not constrained by his purpose of producing an orderly account of all that happened. If he was able to add a bit of fiction in there, twist it up a little bit.

10:53 Why on earth would he start here with his post-resurrection account? think about it hero of the story where is he he's nowhere to be seen but who is a group of women a group of women being the first witnesses of the empty tomb when women were regarded widely in that day and culture to be unreliable witnesses whose testimony was officially inadmissible no one not even peter looking at the evidence, hearing the message of the angels and decisively accepting and believing that Jesus was alive, why would that be your first episode? Unless it was the eyewitness evidence that Luke could stand over, that this is what had been told to him and that he could corroborate. And that leads to my second point on this first episode. And it's a pattern that we'll see running through this one and then into the second and the third. And it is just this honesty in the story, this realness, this ring of truth in the story that all these people closest to Jesus are really struggling, are so slow to believe that he has been raised from the dead.

12:16 Luke himself, as I've said, is a doctor. He knows the laws of nature. He knows people don't rise from the dead. And he's showing here that this was not a group of fantasists who had group-wished this fantasy up together. These were rational people who didn't put two and two together and come up with resurrection. They were crushed, yes. They were grace-stricken. They were hopeless.

12:46 But that didn't lead them here. look, they were bringing spices and perfumes to the grave. They had decided that Jesus was dead. They were preparing themselves for life without him. And in fact, we see it's even more than that. These people had no category in their thinking for a dead Messiah. They had no category for an individual resurrection. And let's think about it.

13:13 You cannot wish for something that isn't even in your frame of reference. For them, Jesus being dead meant, that put an end to it, he wasn't the Messiah that they'd been waiting for. And the only concept of resurrection they would have had would have been all God's people together on the last day, not an individual on a Sunday. Do we see what Luke is showing here? With these accounts. these women, these disciples weren't in any way any more scientifically, any more psychologically, any more theologically predisposed to concluding a resurrection than any of the rest of us. In fact, it could be easily argued based on their understanding of the Old Testament scriptures that they were even less predisposed than the rest of us. They found it so hard to believe.

14:15 That's what Luke is actually showing us here. And if they find it so hard to believe, they couldn't have, and they didn't then make this up. Eventually, and we'll see it's eventually their minds and the trajectory of their lives, such an important piece of evidence, were transformed by the incontrovertible evidence that they would face. Not because of wishful thinking. Episode two, then. Again read so well by the Stephensons on video. The scene cuts to later that same day. We're on the road with two followers of Jesus.

15:00 Luke gives us one of their names, Cleopas. And the other one remains anonymous. An interesting little thing we'll come back to in a moment. And very significantly for Luke, they are traveling away from Jerusalem. You see, since the end of chapter 9 in Luke's account, it's all been a journey, Jesus and his disciples, towards Jerusalem. Very purposefully heading towards Jerusalem for what, in the disciples' minds at least, would be, they hoped, the place where their Messiah would announce himself and inaugurate his deliverance of the people. so for these two now to be traveling away from jerusalem traveling in the opposite direction this was a sign this was a symbol this was a picture that they had given up that hope was over the dreams were shattered they had given up they had given up on jerusalem they'd given up on Jesus as the Messiah. Like the women, they had no category, no frame of reference for a dead Messiah, only a living, militarily conquering.

16:18 And then as they walk along, it's such an intriguing story. The risen Jesus appears to just sort of sidle up alongside them. I wonder, Luke doesn't record their reaction. But he sidles up alongside them. Luke says that they were kept from recognizing him. So as an unknown stranger, Jesus initiates a conversation. He says, what is it that the two of you are talking about that has clearly made you so sad?

16:47 And Cleopas is so shocked by the stranger's ignorance of current affairs in Jerusalem. Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened there lately? and of course the irony is that he is the only one who truly knows what has been going on but Jesus just to keep the conversation simply just goes what things tell me about it and they together articulate the sorrow and the hopelessness already displayed by the journey are on. They outlined to this stranger all of the data available to them, the authorities, who they would have had so much respect for, had decided that Jesus was an imposter and they crucified him. What did that mean? We had hoped, they say, these words at the center of their testimony, that he was the Messiah who would redeem Israel, but he was crucified. He's dead.

17:52 so we were clearly wrong about what we hoped. But yet, our women have told us this morning this thing that happened, that there was no body in the tomb. The other disciples have been, they've said the same thing. But again, just like the women, just like the disciples, these two don't come to the conclusion either that that means resurrection. Because remember, that's not something that is on their psychological, Their scientific, their theological radar. But then Jesus changes all that. First, with a walking Bible study. What an advert for Bible study.

18:36 And then a personal revelation. Just like the women at the tomb, these two men are given a gentle rebuke, and then he goes about recalibrating their theological radar by explaining to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning the Messiah. You think he says the Messiah can't suffer and die. It's actually the opposite. The Messiah must suffer on the path as the path to his glory. Let me show you. And so he opens the scriptures to them. And Luke sadly doesn't give us the MS Bible study references, but we can probably hazard a couple of guesses.

19:18 Perhaps In Genesis 3, God speaking to the serpent, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. This first picture of the Messiah suffering yet being victorious. He might have gone on to the Lord will provide in Genesis 22 where God provides the sacrifice in place of Abraham's son Isaac. He might have gone to Exodus 12 to the Passover lamb to the blood on the door frames, rescuing, saving the Israelites. This picture of the Passover lamb, he might have gone to the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

20:11 And he's taking them through this, and they're seeing the significance of this for the first time. You can imagine the excitement. And wherever he goes, whatever passages he goes to, by the end of this Bible study, their hearts, they say, are on fire. With excitement, with exhilaration, with hope, hearts on fire, hearts transformed. They don't want the conversation to end. I understand I wouldn't have wanted the conversation to end either. And so saying, oh, you know, it's dark. It's a dangerous road.

20:44 You should really stay with us. They invite him in so they can continue the conversation. And they sit down to eat. And the stranger lifts the bread. He gives thanks for it. He breaks it. And as he does so and shares it with them, they see who he is.

21:04 They recognize him. They recognize him in this gesture of breaking the bread. were not told why whether it was something they'd seen before and they recognized the way he did it but in this breaking of the bread in this connection over a meal he revealed himself to them it's Jesus it's their Messiah he is alive, he is risen their hope has been restored and is even greater than it ever was before and then he disappears from their sight. Not something that's possible, of course, in a mortal body. We'll come back to that as well before the end. And the fact that it's late doesn't seem to matter anymore. The fact that the road is dangerous doesn't seem to matter anymore.

21:52 They hightail it back to Jerusalem as fast as they can because they want to tell the others what has just happened with them. And they meet them in this gathering of the disciples and all the others there. And the story continues. A fascinating story. but again thinking about historical credibility would this ever be a story that you would write as a post-resurrection fiction think about it let's be honest a couple of slightly random people not any of the 12 a couple of slightly random people on a slightly random road and the first words of your raised from the dead hero that you record are, so what is it that you two are talking about? Is it not far more credible that Luke was constrained by the eyewitness accounts and his purpose of giving an orderly account of what actually took place? I'm picking up on a point made by Richard Bochum in this big book. That's where names are so important.

23:04 I mentioned Cleopas being named and his companion being anonymous. Well, Bochum explains that Luke's inclusion of Cleopas' name is almost like an equivalent today, if you're at university, you'll understand this, of putting a footnote into an essay or into a paper of some sort to say, I've quoted up here, this is the original source. Here's what he says, a good example is Cleopas. The story doesn't require that he be named and his companion remains anonymous. There seems no plausible reason for naming him other than to indicate that he was the source of this tradition. The story Luke tells would have been essentially the story Cleopas himself told about his encounter with the risen Jesus. One skeptical biblical scholar has made this quote that seems to have been passed around a lot. He says this, Emmaus never happened.

24:04 Emmaus always happened. I don't think Luke, if he met this scholar, would let him away with that. As if this is some sort of mythical, legendary story, a story for all time. Something that didn't actually happen, but just as some sort of representative metaphor. no Luke wouldn't let him away with that this is a story that happened Emmaus really happened and that means that it is even more powerful in terms of the lessons that we can draw from it carefully ordered curated credible history credible eyewitness testimony of the crucified and risen Jesus showing him compassionately drawing alongside two of his followers in the midst of their hopelessness and confusion. How many of us know about that? And as the light of the world gently removing the blinkers from their eyes, patiently walking alongside them as he recalibrates their biblical understanding so that they are able to see what Luke would record Peter preaching in a powerful way in his next book in Acts where he's preaching and he says, this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that the Messiah would suffer.

25:32 Jesus gently, patiently, drawing alongside them, opening their eyes to see that the true Messiah must suffer as his path to glory, that his crucifixion was a confirmation of, not a barrier to. His identity as Messiah. And now they can see that Jesus could be the Messiah. Now that they get that, then they get to see him. See how the two of them are connected. If only for a brief moment, they get to meet him, they get to encounter him, they get to see him, they get to experience him as the bread of life, as he breaks the bread and offers it to them. And marked by their swift dash back to Jerusalem, we see these two transformed people, like all the others will be in due course. Hearts that are broken to hearts on fire, hearts that are defeated and despondent to hearts that are full of excitement, empowered for mission, ready to go, ready to become some of the bravest and boldest and most courageous and most clear witnesses to this good news.

26:48 What changed? This changed. Then, finally, and briefly, we have episode three, read earlier by Lucy. We step into this new scene. What must have been, if you imagine, what must have been this electric atmosphere in this gathering in Jerusalem? Imagine the voices all talking over the top of each other. It's true. Simon has seen him now.

27:15 And then Cleopas and his companion come in, And they're trying to get their story across. And they're saying, we were walking along the road. This guy took us through a Bible study. He broke bread. And then we realized that it was him. We have seen him. It is true. And then suddenly Jesus is there.

27:35 Shalom aleichem. Peace be with you. But it's the opposite of peace. It's the response. They are terrified. They think they've seen a ghost. They think they've seen a spirit. Again, Luke is just so real about their pathetic inability to believe the obvious.

27:59 Think about these gospel accounts. Nobody in them comes out particularly well apart from Jesus. There's no PR stuff going on here. Because the truth is this whole concept of resurrection is just so alien to them. still even after comparing notes of their encounters, they're still freaked out. And again, like in the first episode, like in the second, we get this gentle rebuke. Why are you troubled? Why do you doubt?

28:32 And what does Jesus do? He offers himself as physical evidence of his resurrection. What does he say? Look at my hands and my feet. It's interesting that he says hands and feet. I think we would say, look at my face. But of course, we know from other accounts that the scars are still in his hands and feet. Touch them, feel the flesh and bones.

28:57 I imagine them taking turns to go up and give Jesus a squeeze. And even then, even then, they still need further reinforcement. He realizes that, so what does he do? He asks, have they anything to eat? And he takes a piece of fish and he eats in front of him. He eats. All these little things to show them that here is Jesus in a resurrected body, overcome death, raised to life, vindicating his claims as Messiah, sitting with him, eating fish. So simple.

29:38 But it's so profound. His body is recognizable, but it's clearly different. It's the first of its kind. It's the resurrection prototype, if you like. It has continuity with and similarity to his old body. He has flesh and bones he is able to eat. It bears the wounds of his crucifixion, yet it seemingly is able to disappear like it does with Cleopas and his companion and appear like it does here. Luke records eyewitness accounts.

30:09 He doesn't seek to explain. He just records what happens. But Paul does do some explanation in 1 Corinthians when he teaches that Jesus' resurrected body is what he calls the first fruit, the prototype for the resurrection body that all who place their faith in Jesus are promised. And he uses, as many of us will know, this analogy of a seed to capture this continuity yet difference between the old and the new. That our old bodies are sown perishable and our new bodies are raised imperishable. They're sown in dishonor, raised in glory. Sown weak and raised powerful. Sown natural and raised spiritual.

30:54 Not meaning disembodied, which I still think some of us get confused about at times, but that we are raised in this fully physical body. Jesus is a prototype, but a body that is fully animated by the Holy Spirit of God, unencumbered by sin or broken. A body ready for the new heaven and the new earth. That's what Jesus' body's ready for. And that's what ours will be too. Not that the disciples got any of that that night. They would in time, but I'm sure they didn't then. They were just marveling that he was alive.

31:32 They were just overjoyed at the fact that the Savior that they had seen hanging on the cross on Friday, was now here sitting with him in this room, eating fish with him on Sunday night. On the road to Emmaus, he led a Bible study, and then he revealed himself. Here, he reveals himself, and then he leads a Bible study. Again, showing all that's happened as a fulfillment of what has been written about him. And he takes them through the law of Moses, and the prophets and the Psalms, and he opens the eyes of their minds to be able to see what is in there, the stuff they couldn't see before. Again, imagine that Bible study. What a home group night that would have been to be in that. And then he tells them what comes next in this fulfillment of the scriptures.

32:23 He says, the Messiah will suffer and rise in the third day. That's happened. And then repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. And he says to them, do you know who's going to do this? It's not going to be me. It's going to be you. You're going to preach repentance for sins in my name to all nations beginning here in Jerusalem. clothed with power from on high, when I send my Holy Spirit to give you the power that you need to do this work, to fulfill this mission.

33:01 And that's the story of a very different group of people. The same people, but utterly transformed at Pentecost in the power of the Holy Spirit starting this fire, which explodes into the church. And that story continues on that we are part of to this very day. And we follow in those same footsteps those who say Jesus is Lord, that it's our commission to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. And the question then is, to those of us here who are thinking about these questions, Examining the seven, considering the scriptures. Are you prepared to repent? Are you prepared to turn around, turn to Jesus?

34:08 Accept the offer of forgiveness in his name. Accept the offer of new life in him and all that that entails and say Jesus is my Lord and I believe in my heart that he has been raised from the dead. Let me just say clues. Speak personally for a moment. You've heard other testimony. Let me just briefly tell you mine.

34:44 I proclaim Jesus is Lord. and I believe in my heart with deep conviction that God has raised him from the dead. I find the historical evidence incredibly compelling but I am not a follower of Jesus only because of the historical evidence. I proclaim Jesus as Lord of my life. I believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. And continually in my life, as I have opened the Bible, as I've read it, as I've studied it, while praying that God's Holy Spirit would help me see, time and time again, my heart, like those two on the road, has been set on fire by his word. By how, as you see it, it all comes together.

35:41 and points to and is fulfilled in Jesus, but as well as that as I see and understand what it explains to me about myself, about my brokenness, about my sinfulness, but also about my love, my desires, my hopes, how it makes so much sense, And then also how it talks about the glorious hope that's promised there. This eternal, embodied, eating and drinking future that is mine in Christ. Unencumbered presence of God living. And the excitement and the hope that that brings. My heart is set on fire continuously by his word. but that's not the only reason why I'm a follower of Jesus

36:48 I proclaim and believe Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead and time and time again my testimony is that I have encountered him for myself through his word in prayer in moments of struggle in moments of joy through his church I've encountered him I've been in relationship with him this is personal

37:35 and this is real. And it's these three together. Historical evidence, the amazing, powerful, beautiful word of God and personal relationship with the living Jesus. The three things that are clearly outlined here by Luke in these accounts. it's these three together that lead me to confidently and joyfully proclaim Jesus is Lord he is risen I know I am forgiven in his name what about you let's pray together

38:30 Father We thank you for these accounts that you have given us in your word. For the realness of these stories. We thank you for the honesty of the picture of the mess and the hopelessness of these defeated disciples. And how they were transformed. as they eventually came to see that Christ has died, that Christ has risen, that Christ will come again. Father, by your spirit, set our hearts on fire with this truth. And by your spirit too, for those who are in this room today who are considering this, thinking about this, asking questions about this,

39:31 open eyes so that they might see and accept the truth of your word, the offer of forgiveness in the name of Jesus, the offer of new life. That more may be welcomed and included in your kingdom. Strengthen all of us as we continue in our mission and set our hearts on fire for that mission and for our worship of you we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.