The Sequel to the Passion

The Sequel to the Passion

Many of you probably saw the Passion. Raise your hand if you have seen it!
1. It was a powerfully moving film of the last hours of Jesus.
2. It caused quite a stir among people, especially people who don’t know who Jesus is.

i. To them, they felt that the movie was gory (ironic, because these same people didn’t complain about Gladiator, which was 100x worse),

1. But the major reason that they felt the Passion was violent is that what they saw was an ordinary, perhaps somewhat innocent man, being unjustly tortured for simply speaking unpopular words of truth to a religious establishment.

2. And they are right: to graphically depict the torture and horrendous death of an ordinary person is to glorify violence.

ii. The trouble is this point of view is that this man was no ordinary man, and his death was no tragedy.

1. He is the only Son of God, and He went willingly to this cross as well as accepted the torture because He knew that you and I would remain in our sins and have to bear the punishment for them unless He took every last bit of the wrath that our sin deserved.

a. The violence of the film is mild compared to what Jesus really endured for us.

b. The violence of the film is about the incredible cost of sin and the amazing love of God to give His only Son to bear it and its consequences for us.

c. And I can only say, “Thank God” for enduring it for me!

This morning, we are celebrating the Sequel to the Passion.

i. This is because the cross that He died upon was not the end of the story.

1. If you look up here you might notice that this cross has been decorated with flowers.

2. What a strange symbolism.

a. It must seem like a contradiction…dressing up an executioner’s weapon…yet that is precisely what we have done.

b. This symbol to us is not a symbol of pain and anguish, but a symbol of hope.

c. You see, unlike some denominations, we believe in showing our cross empty.

d. Empty…because Jesus is no longer there.

e. Empty…because there is a sequel to the Passion.

f. Empty…because today we remember that the Passion was not the end of the story.

g. Empty…because the tomb was empty also!

h. An empty tomb means Christ is Risen, my sins are paid for, and death is defeated.

Open your bibles and read with me part of the biblical account of the empty tomb.
1. Luke 24:1-8 But very early on Sunday morning the women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ²They found that the stone covering the entrance had been rolled aside. ³So they went in, but they couldn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴They were puzzled, trying to think what could have happened to it. Suddenly, two men appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed low before them. Then the men asked, "Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive? ⁶He isn't here! He has risen from the dead! Don't you remember what he told you back in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again the third day?" ⁸Then they remembered that he had said this.

Jesus had predicted several times that he would be crucified and die…and his disciples didn’t want to hear it.

i. We don’t like hearing about mortality, about the possibility of death.

ii. It bothers us and most of us, like the disciples, would rather live in denial that a loved one may be taken from us than to face that painful truth.

1. I can recall my own father’s last years, and how he would remind us that he was getting older, and he would tell my sister and I what we should do and how to take care of the estate when he passed on.

2. And we both would chide him for his words, and in our state of denial, tell him that he would be around for many more years to come.

3. Our denial may have led us to miss some of the opportunities to share and enjoy his time with us.

iii. When the disciples were in denial, they also missed the promise of his resurrection that Jesus gave them.

1. So when the tragedy struck, they were missing the hope that Jesus had given them.

2. But here in this passage, God reminded them through two angels, and later on the Emmaus Road, Jesus Himself reminds them that all of this had been foretold by the prophets, by the bible and by Jesus himself.

3. This was all part of the great cosmic plan of the Father to draw mankind back to Himself. And they were just now getting to understand what it meant.

Introduce the multiple subjects of the morning:
1. I have several points to make this morning about the resurrection, and they will seem somewhat unrelated…but they are very much related, because they are about Jesus and about the results of what happened on the cross and what happened with the empty tomb.

The first thing that I need to tell you about is the relationship that the resurrection of Jesus has with death.
1. When most of us think about Resurrection, we think about the abolition of death.

i. But the victory over "Death" was never intended to be merely the abolition of physical death.

ii. If you think that the death that was the consequence of sin in the garden was physical death only, then Adam and Eve should have died right away.

iii. God said they would "die" the very day they ate.

1. The serpent said they would not die.

2. Who told the truth?

3. If God was talking about physical death, then the serpent was correct and God did not deliver on His death threat.

4. The Apostle Paul tells us that death has been conquered, but if death has been conquered, and if that Death is speaking of physical death, then why do we still die physically?

iv. The answer to this lies in the fact that merely making our bodies to last longer or to keep being resuscitated is not eternal life or the deliverance from death that the bible talks about.

1. The bodies that we have are earth suits, and the body is a tool for interaction to our PHYSICAL environment.

2. Our current body is clothing for our soul and spirit. It is not permanent.

What happened in the garden was that Man was separated from God's spiritual fellowship…and that occurred on the very moment of his rebellion.

i. When Adam chose self-rule, he was separated from God…this separation is commonly called “death.”

1. To be outside God's fellowship and presence is Death.

a. The bible says that “The wages of sin is death”

b. The death we experienced is SPIRITUAL DEATH, which means our spirits were dead TOWARD God.

c. Our spirit stays that way until our rebellion (sin) is paid for and we turn from self rule and turn to God through Christ.

2. It was not physical death that you and I needed deliverance from..

a. There is something much greater.

b. We are to be raised immortal with a spiritual body like Christ's resurrection body with which we can live in God's presence forever

c. This spiritual body that we will get, is the body that will be appropriate for the new state of existence and the new life that you and I will be living in when we are in the presence of God forever.

d. This is the picture of baptism…being raised to a new life.

3. Just as there was a worse kind of "death" that stalked man from Adam to Christ, so also there is a better kind of "resurrection" than mere resuscitation of the physical body.

4. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want this body when I am done with it…it is already getting worn out.

a. The bible says it is “corruptible,” meaning it is subject to decay and falling apart….from when you were born, your body has begun to die.

b. How about yours?

c. Are you sometimes feeling like its about ready to be traded in?

Differences between resuscitation and resurrection.
1. We must first understand that Jesus was Resurrected not Resuscitated

i. Resurrection is new life, not old life returned..

1. Resurrection means one is clothed with a body that is unlike the old one in many of its features, and yet very much the same one in its fundamental form.

2. The resurrection body is the same one we died to, but is somehow reformed, remade, glorified and changed to a new use, purpose and function, with new properties and a change in its limitations…. with one particularly unique characteristic

ii. Once the this body is resurrected, it will never die again.

1. Resurrection brings the human body back to life in a permanent status of life which will never die again.

2. The body is changed into the same type of body that Jesus had at His resurrection:

3. Jesus was raised IMMORTAL, never to die again.

4. That is why we as Christians serve a risen Savior, not a dead martyr like other religions.

5. Our resurrected body will be immortal!

iii. Resuscitation means that one is brought back from the dead to die again.

1. Many resuscitations are recorded in the Bible.

2. There are many people who have experienced resuscitation, people who have died, and been raised even in our own time, some defy medical explanation.

3. Resuscitation is what happened to Lazarus.

a. But Lazarus had to die again.

b. In fact, the bible says that the Jews plotted to kill Lazarus after his raising. (John 12:10)

4. Every individual who has been brought back from the dead by resuscitation has eventually died again.

5. So which would you rather have…a resurrected body or a resuscitated body?

There are some skeptics who try to argue that Jesus was merely resuscitated.

i. They say: “Jesus did not really die, He only swooned, therefore the disciples saw only a revived or resuscitated Christ. Christ was nailed to a cross and suffered from shock, pain and loss of blood. But instead of actually dying, He only fainted (swooned) from exhaustion. When He was placed in the tomb, He was still alive and the disciples, mistaking Him for dead, buried Him alive. After several hours, He revived in the coolness of the tomb, arose, and departed.”

ii. This theory completely ignores the evidences of His death and would require a greater miracle than the resurrection.

iii. If we were to believe these people, then we would have to believe that the cool damp air of the tomb, instead of killing Him, healed Him.

1. We would have to believe that He slid out of His garments, pushed the stone away, fought off the guards and shortly thereafter appeared to His disciples as the Lord of life (McDowell, p. 98).

2. This theory cannot answer the problem of the linen wrappings lying undisturbed, exactly as they had been when around the body of Christ. Christ would have had to perform a miracle of wiggling out of the wrappings which were wound tightly about the body with over a hundred pounds of spices in the wrappings without someone to help unwrap Him, as in the case of Lazarus in John 11

3. In Jn 19:34 one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water..

iv. If Christ had only been unconscious and revived, He still would have still been half dead.

1. A great deal of time would have been needed for recuperation. I

2. In His weakened condition He could not have walked the seven miles on the Emmaus road.

3. It would have been impossible for someone (who had only resuscitated from the agonies the Lord endured with the beatings and crucifixion) to so quickly give the impression that He was the Conqueror of death and the grave, the Prince of Life.

4. In fact it was this belief which turned the disciples around and became the foundation of the rest of their ministries

5. And this is the greatest proof of the resurrection was the change in the attitude of the disciples who had only days before been cowering and hiding from the authorities, were now willing to stand up and face all opposition without fear. They had seen something so remarkable; it had changed their lives forever!

Lets look at what they saw:

Luke 24:36-42 ³⁶ While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be to you." ³⁷ But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. ³⁸ And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." ⁴⁰ And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" ⁴² They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; ⁴³ and He took it and ate it before them.

What was different and similar about Jesus’s body?

i. He could appear in different forms (Mark16:12).

ii. He could eat food. (Luke 24:43).

iii. He could appear and disappear and could pass through solid objects (John 20:19, 26).

iv. He could pass in a moment from one place to another (Luke 24:31).

v. These aren’t descriptions of a resuscitated body!

In this passage I just read, Jesus scares the living daylights out of the disciples by suddenly appearing in their midst, behind locked doors.

i. They think that they are seeing a ghost.

ii. But Jesus quickly dispels this fear by telling them to “look at my hands and my feet” and telling them to “touch him.”

1. This is proof that he is not just a disembodied spirit, but in fact, a resurrected body.

2. It was to prove that He truly had been raised and was not just a disembodied spirit (like Samuel's appearance) awaiting the final resurrection like everyone else.

3. He told them to touch him, “flesh and bones” rather than “flesh and blood”

4. Blood is the life of the old body.

5. Flesh and blood can never possess the kingdom of God." - 1 Corinthians 15:50

Christ’s form was similar yet different enough that people noticed the difference.

i. "After that he appeared in another form unto two of them..." (Mark 16:12).

ii. When Jesus was resurrected, nobody recognized him, because his body was changed (Luke 24:15-31; 36-41, John 20:14-16; 21:4).

So how did the disciples actually come to recognize Him?

i. In each of the biblical accounts, Jesus does something similar.

1. On the road to Emmaus, the disciples don’t recognize Him until he breaks bread with them and exposes his hands.

2. In the upper room….He told them to see his hands and feet

3. When He confronts Thomas (doubting Thomas) he tells Him to touch his hands, feet and side..

ii. The recognizable feature of Jesus, despite being somewhat different in appearance from his pre-resurrection body, was that of his scars.

Lets talk a few minutes about scars.
1. Jennifer and I brainstormed this one for awhile this week…how is it that his scars…the remnants of his wounds, remained on his new, resurrection body? And why?
2. One thing that came to my mind was the TV show, CSI.

i. In that show, when the medical examiner gets a body that they cannot identify, they look all over it for prominent scars.

ii. They look for birthmarks or scars from surgeries or accidents that can be documented and compared to records so as to positively identify the victim.

The disciples aren’t identifying a dead body.

i. They are looking at the real deal…a new body, with new features and new characteristics, something unlike anything ever seen before. And yet, there is a commonality…there are prominent scars.

ii. American sign language uses pointing to one palm and then the other as the word for Jesus.

iii. His scars that he got on the Cross, suffering on our behalf, are with him forever.

iv. Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice cannot be separated from his essence or identity. They are who he is…they will be his for eternity.

1. The suffering servant and savior.!

You and I have scars too, don’t we.

i. Our scars are a pretty big part of who we are.

1. Sometimes they fade with passing years, other ones remain and still others are invisible to the naked eye, but they are real none-the-less.

ii. Some of us hide our scars.

1. We think they are ugly or will make us look less than perfect.

2. We want others to see us at our best, to accept us and like us.

3. But when everyone at church is polished and perfect and hides their scars, very few people feel safe..

4. Because the truth is, no one is really perfect, and we all have our scars of life, both inside and out.

5. And if we hide our scars, how will anyone ever know what healing God has done, or see the new life He has made in us?

iii. God calls us to hold out our scars…to say with Jesus, see…my hands and my feet?

1. Look at where I have come up short, and look at what God has done in my life!

2. Our scars say to others, “I am a fellow sufferer of the human condition. I don’t have it all together. I am broken and God has put me back together.”

iv. We at Here’s Hope have a mission…”to be a safe harbor of God’s love, where people are transformed into devoted followers of Jesus Christ.”

1. It is a place where your scars can show.

2. It is a place where you can heal and grow.

There is a story of a little boy who had a mother who had terribly disfigured hands. As He grew embarrassed by her hands, especially when his friends would tease him about her disfigurement. One day he told his mother how he felt. She decided he was old enough to hear how she had gotten the disfigured hands. There had been a fire in the house when he was still an infant, but she had braved the fire and wrapped the baby in cloth and then shielded him with her hands as she made here way to the door. But the fierce heat took its toll and had severely burned her hands.

i. The little boy had tears in his eyes as he listened, and then he took his mothers hands in his own and said…”These are the most beautiful hands in the whole world!”

The scars of our savior, the pain he endured on our behalf is ugly, but like the story, they are beautiful to us, who have been saved by them.

i. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “By his wounds you have been healed.”

ii. God takes pain and suffering and makes it redemptive. Your scars, your pain may be with you forever…but God can transform those scars into symbols of healing and life for others if you will let Him.

iii. Because He lives…We can face tomorrow!

In summary, the resurrection didn’t just happen to Jesus, as if he was passive or a victim.
1. Jesus Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the Life.”
2. God didn’t have to go in and shake Jesus awake
3. God didn’t even go in and call Jesus out of the tomb as Jesus had for Lazarus.
4. Jesus didn’t have to be let out of the tomb.
5. Jesus didn’t have to be unwrapped from the burial wrappings.
6. He came back to life because He was the resurrection and the life.

i. He passed right through the wrappings in the same way that he passed through walls and locked doors.

ii. He passed through the stone blocking the entrance to the tomb

iii. And He can pass through the hardness or your heart or the pain of your life.

You see, Jesus didn’t just “experience” the resurrection…and He didn’t just “get life”…these were not things that happened to him…they are what He is!

When Jesus tells Martha and Mary that He is the resurrection and the life before he calls Lazarus out of the grave, he asks them, “Do you believe this?”
1. That question should be one you ask yourself today.
2. You may say “No, I don’t believe that. I don’t’ believe that Jesus offers eternal life to those who trust in Him.”

i. And you can go on living a life with no hope and no eternal future.

ii. You can lead a self-led life as long as you choose to…forever if you choose.

1. Jesus can set you free from the tyranny of self-rule (called sin) and bring you into the Kingdom of God, which is where God rules.

2. But God rules us from the inside out, not like religion or the world, with trying to change us from the outside in.

3. You can choose self rule over God’s rule.

4. It is your choice. – but when you make the choice, you also choose the results of your decision.

a. You can choose self-rule, which is separation from God. You can have it all your way. You can be the god of your own life. And you can reap the fruit of it.

b. Or you can choose to have a relationship with God, where His life will come inside of you and begin to make you a brand new person.

c. The bible calls it a “new birth.” It can be yours today, by trusting Jesus and believing in what He has done for you, and receiving what he did as the most precious gift in the history of mankind.

d. You can’t make God love you…He already does. He accepts you and loves you, and has demonstrated that by giving you and I His Son.

e. Won’t you choose life today by receiving that free gift of Jesus?