Message summary: The first verbal witness of the resurrection in Matthew’s Gospel is the angel who testified this simple, yet game-changing, life-changing truth, "He is not here; He is risen". And that remains the victorious testimony and foundational message of the faithful church and faithful Christian.
Listen to our message on your audio player.
"He is not here; He is risen, just as He said" (Matthew 28:6).
Yesterday Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection Of Jesus Christ. We gathered at Calvary Church in Lancaster where Brooksyne sang in the choir during three morning worship services and I served as a greeter. There's just an extra special joy so many express when coming to church on Resurrection Day. The youngest I greeted was a family with a four day old baby who was attending his very first Easter service!
Our service opened with a powerful song that incorporates elements of a song we sang on Easter beginning in our childhood and elements which were copyrighted just this year. (See below for a link to song.) The main theme of our pastor's message was a personal query: Is the truth of Christ's resurrection just familiar or is it foundational to your life?
The custom of celebrating Resurrection Day is an ancient ritual of the church. However, in the New Testament there is no specific reference to it being celebrated annually, apart from the first Resurrection Day. The early Christians continued to celebrate thePassover and would have had the additional dimension of the resurrection of Christ in mind.
The actual introduction of Easter Sunday appears to have occurred after Emperor Hadrian ruthlessly crushed the Barkokeba revolt (A.D. 132-135). However Christians, beginning on Resurrection Day itself, celebrated the resurrection each week on the Lord’s Day!
Most of you have heard the phrase "game changer". This is an idiom that has been in use since the late 1980s to early 1990s. A game changer may be a new person, idea, event or protocol that upends the established order. Something that is a game changer is radical and disruptive, usually in a positive way. For example, when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone it was a "game changer".
Today, let us
consider the ultimate game changer. In using this phrase we are not trivializing the resurrection or implying that it's some kind of game. Rather, we are considering the Person and event that upended the established order in the most dramatic way possible and most certainly in a positive way summed up in these familiar words which we ended our service with yesterday.
"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives"
The New Testament uniformly teaches the centrality of Christ’s resurrection. Most are familiar with the accounts of the resurrection found in all four gospels. That’s likely the message most preachers spoke on yesterday. Each of the four gospels ends with an account of the resurrection.
Today's text is a simple yet profound message: "He is not here; He is risen, just as He
said".
"He is not here" The tomb was empty!
"He is risen" The explanation on why the tomb was empty.
"Just as He said" He had prophesied numerous times that this is what would
happen.
This week we will examine a resurrection truth from the other four major sections of the New Testament; Acts, Paul’s epistles, the general epistles and Revelation. Each affirms the foundation of the resurrection of Christ, what Paul calls of "first importance" (I Corinthians 15:3).
"First importance
(protos) in this context refers to first in prominence, most important or foremost. The truth that follows is among first things. Not to time, but to importance." (Precept Austin online commentary)
These essential truths of the gospel are of first importance:
* Christ died for our sins
* He was buried
* He was raised from the dead
* He appeared to many witnesses
The first verbal witness of the resurrection in Matthew’s Gospel is the angel who testified of this simple, yet game changing, life changing truth,
"He is not here; He is risen". And that remains the victorious testimony of the faithful church and faithful Christian.
Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Father, the announcement made by the angel at the tomb continues to echo throughout the centuries. Just as the women told the disciples that Jesus was not in the tomb, but He is risen, disciples of Christ have repeated the life-changing Good News to all who will hear. Though Jesus was dead He lives again. Though we were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins we are set free and made alive through the saving blood of Jesus Christ. His resurrected power raises us up out
of the dark tomb of our sinful despair, and promises us a home in heaven where we will abide with Christ forever, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Easter is mentioned in some versions of the Bible in Acts 12:4, although most versions use the word “Passover” in this passage: “And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people.” (Setting: Herod had killed James and, seeing that it pleased the Jews, he then arrested Peter.)
Wordpress
