Every time you enter our worship Center, you walk past our Wall of Crosses in the entryway. Those crosses are symbols of the most important historical event in the life of our church, and I would add the most important event in world history … the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and His subsequent resurrection.
We offer each family who worships here an opportunity to hang a cross on that wall as a remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on that first Good Friday and His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday.
The cross has a special meaning for Christians, even though the cross was originally a tool Rome used to execute its criminals more than two thousand years ago.
And it wasn’t just a form of execution; it was a form of torture and humiliation – where the victim usually suffocated to death from the weight of his own body.
Back then, if you wore a cross around your neck, it would be like wearing an invitation to be persecuted and killed. But today, we encourage you to wear a cross. The fact that such an ugly instrument has become a thing of elegance and beauty today is actually a testimony and clear picture of what this Easter Season is all about.
The Resurrection is the day that took things that were cruel, ugly, and repulsive and made them beautiful again.
The Resurrection is redemption, as well as, transformation.
The Resurrection doesn’t make the cross any little less barbaric. The Resurrection is so powerful that it took a symbol of death, and transformed it literally it into a symbol of life and salvation.
Today, I want to bring us back to the reality of what happened last weekend. We are going to look at two important aspects of the Resurrection that go hand in hand – the reality of the event, and the beautiful transformation the event brings.
Without the Resurrection, the cross is barbaric and meaningless.
With the Resurrection, the cross becomes our hope and life.
You may remember that Jesus foretold His death and resurrection at least 3 times to His disciples, including the account in our Gospel lesson from Mark 8.
The act of Jesus’ Resurrection proves that all Jesus’ words were true, and it proves that His sacrifice for our sins accomplished its work. As Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished.”
Since Jesus rose from the grave, we know that all who believe in Him will be raised from the dead as well.
Paul told us this in our first lesson, when he said…
“…Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20
All Jesus DID and SAID was true. WITHOUT the Resurrection, Jesus’s claim in John 14:6 would NOT make sense…
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
But BECAUSE of the Resurrection, this claim is our great and ONLY hope for salvation.
Today, we can have great confidence in both the truth and power of Jesus’ Resurrection. Even historical witnesses, outside of the Bible, confirm Jesus lived and was crucified.
Amazingly, historical witnesses also prove that Jesus’ earliest followers were extremely serious about their devotion to Him, His teachings, and His resurrection.
These witnesses confirm that something monumental and transformative took place in the FOLLOWERS of Jesus.
Even the pagan Roman rulers testified to the fact that the earliest followers of Jesus, who knew Him and were eye-witnesses to His life, did not consider Him to be an ordinary man.
In the years after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples faced extreme persecution and rejection.
Acts 12 records…
“He (Herod) had (the Apostle) James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.” Acts 12:2
Then, the Jewish historian Josephus told us that James, the half-brother of Jesus, was stoned to death by Jewish leaders.
The second-century church father Origen wrote of Peter’s crucifixion in Rome … hanging upside down. Tradition tells us that all the other remaining apostles, except for John, died as martyrs.
There is convincing evidence both inside and outside of the Bible that many apostles died for their faith, and that they all faced significant persecution because of their extraordinary BELIEF in Jesus’ Resurrection.
Of course, Christianity isn’t the only world religion with martyrs. But what makes these martyrs so unique is that they died for their belief in something they saw with their own eyes – namely Jesus’s Resurrection.
Many people in history have died for what they truly believed as a result of what others told them. These apostles willingly gave their lives for what they saw with their own eyes, rather than deny the Resurrection.
Their determined adherence to believe and proclaim the Resurrection brought no fame, power, or status. Rather, it cost them EVERYTHING.
Here is the key point about all of this … a COMPLETE TRANSFORMATION had come about in the hearts of the disciples BECAUSE of the certainty of the Resurrection. There is definitely a cause-and-effect relationship here.
You might remember, before the Resurrection, Peter was afraid to admit to a young servant girl that he even knew Jesus.
After the Resurrection, Peter proclaimed the truth about Jesus, not just to a young slave girl, but to thousands of men and women.
In Acts 4:13, Peter and John spoke boldly about Jesus. And Luke wrote when the high priest and leaders…
“…saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
The beauty of the Resurrection is the…
Transformative Power it brings.
Peter and John were CHANGED by it. Countless people throughout the ages have been transformed by it.
Today, YOU can be transformed as well. The moment the Resurrection comes into our lives, we allow ourselves to be crucified with Christ. From then on, every other moment is transformed from being stuck and bound by the things of this earth to being freed and prepared for the things of heaven.
To take part in the Resurrection is to believe in the cross, and in that belief, Jesus takes all our sin and all our failures and makes us beautiful again.
How powerful His love can be even when we are unloving … especially when we are unloving. How far His grace reaches even when we fail. HOW completely He can change the way we think, HOW we live, and even WHO we are.
Some point to Jesus’ half-brother James as one of the greatest proofs that Jesus rose from the dead. You may remember what we learn in John 7:5 before the Crucifixion…
“For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”
His half-brother James DID NOT believe in Jesus. But after the Resurrection, James not only became a believer in Jesus, but he became the LEADER of the Christian church in Jerusalem.
Before the Crucifixion, every single one of the twelve disciples deserted Jesus and ran away.
After the Resurrection … all eleven of the surviving disciples boldly proclaimed the message of His death and Resurrection.
Something HAPPENED to them that can only be explained through their eyewitness of the Resurrection of Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
If you have NOT experienced the transformative power of the Resurrection in your life, today MAY BE your day. If you have already put your faith in Jesus, then today may be the day to move forward in its power to make you more bold and free.
Through the Resurrection, the cold, heartless tomb itself is transformed into a symbol of hope.
Matthew 28:13 shows us there is little debate as to whether the tomb was empty. The Jewish leaders bribed the guards and told them…
“You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’”
The priests COULD NOT produce proof that Jesus’ body remained in the tomb, so this statement seemed to provide a plausible explanation of the empty tomb.
However, over the years and decades, their lie unraveled as the disciples faced persecution and death for their insistence that the tomb was empty, and the body could not be found because Jesus rose from the dead.
More than FIVE HUNDRED DIFFERENT WITNESSES saw the risen Lord in the weeks after His Crucifixion – yet none of them came forward to REFUTE the truth of the empty tomb through the Resurrection.
The Resurrection completely TRANSFORMS death.
Without the Resurrection, death is the tragic ending to life.
With the Resurrection, death is just the beginning of eternal life.
The Resurrection makes everything new. But it is equally important to realize that the Resurrection DOES NOT make us any better. The resurrection is NOT a step towards self-improvement. It doesn’t help us be good.
What so many people don’t understand is that being good or better IS NOT the issue. Being good enough or kind enough IS NOT what God is looking for.
To live in this world means to be broken and have moments of selfishness, greed, and pride. But, while living in this world, you also have the potential for incredible moments of exceptional kindness and generosity and service to others.
In God, there is no corruption. So, to be human means to be separate from God, in need of forgiveness and transformation that can only be found in the Resurrection.
Some would say, “Well, if God wants to separate Himself from me just because I’m human, then I don’t want anything to do with a God like that anyway.”
But that statement fails to understand that WE have separated ourselves from God. God never leaves us. God had nothing to do with our separation.
The Crucifixion and Resurrection are God’s work to close the gap. And God loves you so much that He made a way for you to be with Him despite your inherited and willful sinfulness.
God has extended the invitation of the Resurrection to anyone who will simply put their faith in Jesus.
In Romans 10:9, Paul said…
“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.”
Bottom line? If you don’t want Jesus on this earth, then He is not going to force you to be with Him in heaven either.
Remember, God’s call is not for you to be better. His call is simply to “come” … come to the cross and…
Die to your need to control your life.
Die to the substitutes for God in your life … your idols.
Die to your sin and the temptation that lingers all around you.
To come to the cross is to lay down your pride and the weakness of your humanity, in order to be transformed by the Resurrection.
Let the righteousness of Jesus make you right.
Let the forgiveness of the cross make you right.
Let the power of the Resurrection make you free.
Jesus doesn’t JUST want you to be good. He wants you to BE FORGIVEN, so that you can be with Him forever.
Let me remind you of where we began – the cross that some of us wear as jewelry or religious symbols, such as the one I am wearing, reminds us that God took what was coarse, dark, and broken and resurrected it into something beautiful.
So, I want to give you an opportunity to experience what it means to have your most ugly moments transformed into a story of God’s forgiveness, love, and grace.
That change always begins with prayer. But I want you to know it doesn’t end there. In fact, praying from your heart means that you want to live in the Resurrection for the rest of your life – and all eternity. It means that you will always ask Jesus to forgive your sins and to guide your life.
As we close this message, I want to encourage you to remain in your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and challenge you to come back and join us here next week … to take the next step in this journey that we titled “The Easter Challenge”. Remember always the…
Resurrection is redemption AND transformation. Amen