The Difference... Easter 2023
I love to talk to people, people from all walks of life who have a wide range of beliefs about life, God, Jesus, and faith. Just a few weeks ago I was talking to a friend who asked me, “What’s the difference between Christianity and all of the other religions? No disrespect to you, but aren’t all religions the same?” I said, “No offense taken, but the difference between Christianity and every other religion is quite simple–it’s Jesus.” Every other religion teaches that we have to work, to do good things, to earn our way into God’s good graces while Christianity teaches us that we are totally incapable of being good enough. Every other religion is built around a great leader who died and remained dead. Jesus died and God raised Him from the dead, never to die again. And here’s the unique thing about His death and resurrection. He didn’t die a victim of those who beat Him and then nailed Him to a Roman cross, but His death was the focal point of why He came to earth. He died to open the door of reconciliation to God for you and me. Then God raised Him from the dead, validating Jesus deity as the Son of God, and removing the sting of death from all of those who will trust in Jesus.” My friend wasn’t convinced. He didn’t stop what he was doing and confess his faith in Jesus, but this really is the meaning of Easter. Jesus died, not because He had done anything wrong, but He died for your sins and mine. God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, to declare to the world that Jesus is who He claimed to be, not a martyr, but the long awaited Messiah who came to offer salvation to those who are alienated from God because of our sin. The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most debated, disputed, and denied events in history, yet Jesus’ followers have never been willing to give up their claim that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and that He lives to this very day. Why is that? Wouldn't it be much easier to give up our belief in Jesus’ literal, bodily resurrection and simply say Jesus’ resurrection is a metaphor for new life, for hope in the midst of dire circumstances? There are many people who claim to be followers of Jesus who have made that compromise. It would be easier to compromise, but if we were to do that then we would deny the truth of Scripture. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the keystone of our faith, not according to some Christian think tank, but according to Scripture. For the next few minutes I want to share some of the Scripture I’m referring to so that we all might understand how the death and resurrection of Jesus is the heart of God’s plan for wayward people. And by wayward people, I’m referring to every single one of us. The Bible says,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24 NIV)
Before we begin taking a look at some Scripture let me say this: There was not one of Jesus’ followers who woke up on Sunday morning, what the Scriptures refer to as “the first day of the week,” and expected to find Jesus’ tomb empty. Not one. Some women went to take care of Jesus’ corpse on the morning of the third day. John tells us,
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" (John 20:1-2 NIV)
In Luke’s Gospel, after the women were told Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but that He had risen just like He said He would, the women hurried back to tell the disciples. You can only imagine how excited, overjoyed those women must have been when they burst through the door and delivered the news! In the next verse, in Luke 24:11, we read,
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. (Luke 24:11 NIV)
It seemed like nonsense to the disciples. Of course it seemed like nonsense. We had two funerals last week and none of us expected either of our friends to rise up on the third day. If someone walked in this morning and told us they saw Cliff or Kenny early this morning we would think they had lost their minds! When the women hurried to tell the disciples the news, one of the disciples was missing. A man named Thomas, maybe you know him as “Doubting Thomas.” In John 20:24-28 we read,
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:24-28 NIV)
When Thomas saw Jesus with his own eyes he no longer had any doubts. I’ve taken the time to share all of this with you because I want you to see that those early followers of Jesus were no different than you and me. They had zero expectations they would ever see Jesus alive again, but they did see Him because God raised Jesus from the dead. After Jesus was crucified, but before His resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were huddled up in a room. They locked every lock they could find because they were afraid that those who killed Jesus would come for them next, but after they met Jesus, after His resurrection, they were changed. Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, the followers of Jesus were different people, no longer afraid, but empowered and fearless! Simon Peter, the guy who had denied that even knew Jesus, when Jesus was on trial, stood up at the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem and said,
22 "Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: "'I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.' 29 "Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. (Acts 2:22-32 NIV)
Peter, pitiful Peter, scaredy cat Peter, was now unashamed to proclaim at a Jewish festival that Jesus was alive, that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. Peter said, “Wicked men put him to death…But God raised him from the dead.” Peter also quoted Psalm 16:8-11 as an Old Testament prophecy pointing to the resurrection of the Messiah. Jesus Himself had told His disciples again and again what was going to happen to Him. Let me show you just one example. Turn with me to Mark 8:31-32 and let’s read together.
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. (Mark 8:31-32 NIV)
I love that last phrase that Mark included, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” Peter didn’t want Jesus to die, none of Jesus’ disciples wanted Him to die. We don’t ever want someone that we love with all of our heart to die. Peter was so fixated on Jesus speaking about His death that he never even heard Jesus say, “after three days he will rise again.” I will share one more example with you of the centrality of the resurrection in God’s plan for wayward people. If you would turn with me to Romans 1. While you are turning there I want to set the scene for our Scripture. Romans was written by a man named Saul, who was from Tarsus, and was so passionate about his faith that he was on his way to literally hunt down the followers of Jesus who lived in Damascus because he saw them as proponents of a false religion. All of that changed when he ran into Jesus on his way to Damascus. From that day forward Paul’s life would never be the same again. The adversary of Jesus and His followers became the greatest missionary of the Good News in history. In his letter to the church in Rome, Saul, who became known as Paul wrote,
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Romans 1:1-4 ESV)
Paul saw himself as a messenger of “the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.” This gospel was “concerning his Son,” the One we know as Jesus. I want to point out one word, a very intentional word used by Paul, and it is found in verse 4 where Paul writes that Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” I know our time is short, but we must take just a moment to understand the Greek word translated “declared.” The Greek word “?????” (horizo) was originally used to mark off the limits of a field. One field would be separated from another by a fence or a line or some type of designation which would set it apart from the next field. This is the word that is used by Paul to describe our Lord. Through His resurrection Jesus was declared or we could use the word “proved” to be the Son of God. I want you to think about this for just a moment. Jesus did not become the Son of God at His resurrection. Jesus was eternally the Son of God. He was the Son of God when He was born of the Virgin Mary. He was the Son of God when He walked this earth, when He was mocked and ridiculed, when He taught at the Temple and at the Sea of Galilee, but God’s Word tells us He wasn’t recognized as the Son of God by those He came to save. John tells us,
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. (John 1:10 NIV)
And in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8, Paul says, “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” But Paul tells us, in Romans 1:4, Jesus was declared, He was proven to be the Son of God in power through the resurrection. On the cross Jesus appeared to be just like every other man who had ever lived and died. He was weak, He was subject to those in authority, He seemed to be defeated, and He died. But God, by raising Jesus from the dead, vindicated Jesus and proved that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is a Man unlike any other man, He is the long awaited Messiah, the Hope of the entire world. It is the resurrection of Jesus that sets Him apart from every other person who has ever lived.It wasn’t the Bible that convinced Paul that Jesus was the Son of God, but it was seeing Jesus that caused him to praise the One he had once hated and despised. And in seeing Jesus, Paul began to read those Scriptures he knew so well in a totally different light. Over and over again, in each of his letters found in the New Testament, Paul quotes the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, to show that God had a plan to redeem those who are lost and alienated from God and Jesus was His plan…Jesus is the difference!It is because of Jesus’ resurrection that the followers of Jesus need no longer fear death. And, it is because of Jesus’ resurrection that you and I can know with absolute certainty that we too will experience the resurrection power of Jesus for our own lives. In the years that I’ve been here at Britton Christian Church I’ve been with so many families when they have lost a loved one. I’ve gathered a large sample size through the years and I can say with confidence that those followers of Jesus who loved the Lord with all of their heart, not those who simply wandered into church now and then, but those whose hearts were consumed with loving and living for Jesus, they have faced death differently. The fear of death was replaced with a longing to see their Lord. But let’s say, just for the moment, that you are one of those who says there is no hope beyond the grave. We live. We die. End of story. Well, you would be in good company since there are many who have gone before you and a growing number among us today who believe the same thing. There is no purpose in life and no hope beyond the grave. Bertrand Russell was a genius by any definition of the word. He wrote 66 books during his lifetime and the last book he ever wrote was titled, “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Dr. Russell once wrote,
That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; …Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built. (Russell, Bertrand. The Free Man’s Worship)
Dr. Russell was certain that you and I must build our lives on the firm foundation of unyielding despair. From what I’ve been reading this is exactly what more and more people in our country are building their lives upon today–people are full of despair. People from all walks of life. We long for more and yet more seems to be just out of our reach. The good news for you and me this morning, on this Resurrection Sunday, is that that which our hearts long for is not to be found in anything or anyone in this world. For those who are single, there is no man or woman who can provide for you what you can find in a relationship with Jesus. For those who are battling just to pay your bills each month, there is no amount of money that can provide for you the security you can experience in a relationship with Jesus. For those who are struggling with health issues, if your health was fully restored to you, you still would not feel the strength and vitality that can be yours through a relationship with Jesus. C.S. Lewis once said,
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. (C.S. Lewis)
God has a plan for you and for me. He knit you together in your mom’s tummy. He gave you the breath of life. He knows everything about you and me and He loves you with an everlasting love. He loves you so much He sent His Son, our Savior, to rescue you, redeem you, and restore you to a right relationship with Himself. Oh, what’s the difference between Christianity and every other religion? It is Jesus, He is the difference. Won’t you welcome Him into your heart this morning?Mike HaysBritton Christian ChurchApril 9, 2023