Resurrection

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Easter

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Rusty's Notes

THE DEATH OF JESUS
Matthew 27:45 – 28:10
45 From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land., 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. 49 But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. 51 Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.
54 When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
55 Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there, watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
 
THE BURIAL OF JESUS
57 When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it be released. 59 So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen, 60 and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were seated there, facing the tomb.
 
THE CLOSELY GUARDED TOMB
62 The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal him, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 “You have a guard of soldiers,” Pilate told them. “Go and make it as secure as you know how.” 66 They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guards.
 
RESURRECTION MORNING
Matthew 28
1 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.
5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”
8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. 9 Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”[1]
 
Video – Israel ‘22
 

• One of my favorite times of the year is spring.
• I love that feeling of the stirrings of new life that arises when first the tiniest spring flowers like snowdrops or aconites fight their way through the winter frosts, to be followed by crocuses, daffodils and apple blossom.
• There is something in the human psyche that responds to new life.
• In some ways, the resurrection of Jesus chimes in with this response to new life.
• Just as spring flowers intimate that winter is passing and summer is round the corner, so also Jesus’ resurrection points us to the fact that the old order is passing and new creation is just about to happen.
• The major difference between their rising to new life and Jesus’ rising is that their new life is cyclical, interwoven with death, whereas Jesus’ is not. Jesus rose to new life and will never die again.
• The difference between what happened to Jesus and what happened to Lazarus is vast because just like the spring flowers Lazarus died again, and awaits another resurrection.
• Jesus did not die again, nor ever will; Jesus rose not to the same life—as Lazarus did—but to a different life in which death no longer features.
• Technically, what happened to Lazarus was not resurrection (rising to a new eternal life) but revivification (rising to a renewed old life).
• Jesus’ resurrection is more than just that he was dead and now is alive, since this could be said of Lazarus and many others who were miraculously raised in the Bible.
• What is ‘more’ about Jesus’ resurrection is that he will never die again.
• Jesus had risen from the dead but no one else had; Jesus had risen from the dead but the world was, apparently, no different from the way it had been before: the Romans still occupied Palestine, the poor were still poor, Israel still down-trodden.[2]

 

• There are 3 groups of people at Pinheads today:
  1) Those who are just curious about what is happening here… on an Easter Sunday Morning.
  2) Those who don’t believe in resurrection.
  3) Those who do believe in resurrection.
• Have you ever given thought to the idea that what separates you from the rest of the world is your belief in the idea of resurrection?
• We have almost worked our way through the history of the New Testament Church in the Bible.
• Paul is imprisoned and being sent to Rome, for what reason?
• Simply because he believes in the resurrection of Jesus and is telling people about this great news.

 

• Belief in the resurrection is an act of rebellion against the evil, corruption and oppression that can so easily swamp us.
• Believing in the resurrection can be a refusal to accept that the world is as it is, that it can never change and that we must accept it simply as it is.
• Believing in the resurrection can and should transform not only how we view the world, but how we live in it.
• We naturally become people in whom others can see new life, and people who introduce that new life wherever the world is stifling and life-denying.
• Resurrection makes a difference not only to Jesus and the earliest disciples but also to us, as we live out our lives day by day.[3]

 

• Jesus’ resurrection points us to a new way of looking at the world, a new way of being that changes who we are and how we live in the world.
• The only way to escape from our identity in Adam was by dying.
• When Jesus died, he made a way of escaping from identity in Adam, and by rising again he opened up a new identity, a Christ identity shaped, not by Adam and who he was, but by Christ and who he was.
• Our baptism marks that pattern of dying and rising with Christ which allows us a new corporate identity now infected, not with Adam’s imperfections, but with Christ’s perfections.
• You have to believe in resurrection because you have been resurrected!
• Galatians 2:20-21 - I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.[4]
• We talk about identity in Christ every week here at Pinheads. Why is that so important?
• Everything about who we are, what we think and what we do is now infected with Christ and, as a result, our lives should be entirely transformed.[5]
• But at the same time, there is an evil in this world that wants to tell us a different story/narrative.
• And for some reason, no matter how many times you keep hearing that we are new creation, we keep coming back to the idea that is a great message but I just don’t “feel” it right now.
• That is because it is not a “feeling”.
• You being a new creation, is a reality based upon Truth.
• I will spend the rest of my days reminding you about the Truth of you who you really are.

 

• Resurrection is not complete, however, without the ascension and Pentecost.
• The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit all come together as a seamless whole.
• The resurrection offers us transformation in Christ, the ascension gives us the motivation to act and Pentecost the ability to do it.
• The reason why the ascension was vital was that if the risen Christ had not ascended into heaven and was still on earth proclaiming the good news, healing the sick and befriending the poor and oppressed, then most of us would leave this work to him.
• We would become passive recipients of his ministry rather than active proclaimers of his message.
• After the resurrection, once they had grasped what had happened to Jesus, the disciples were in danger of slipping back into their previous form of existence.
• What they most needed was a vacuum, and this is what the ascension provided, a space that could only be filled if they picked up the challenge and took it on.
• The sending of the Spirit gave them the ability to do what otherwise they were incapable of doing.
• Filled with the Spirit they were able to comprehend the significance of the resurrection and to understand that Jesus’ ascension and command to proclaim the gospel sent them out into the world but, most important of all, the Spirit gave them the ability to do as Jesus commanded.
• Beyond their human limitations, fears and anxieties, the Spirit-filled disciples were at last able to do all that Jesus asked.

 

• Some people understand ‘living the resurrection’ to mean that we should be constantly (and, in my view, irritatingly) cheerful, whatever the ups and downs of life.
• This is far from the experience of the New Testament writers, who spoke often of real sufferings as a result of their life in Christ.
• What it really means is that we enter the hard times with our feet firmly planted on the rock, our souls anchored in the hope that Christ brings.
• This does not mean a lack of suffering or even that we do not feel suffering as much as others.
• To believe in resurrection is to believe that death is not all powerful, that beyond despair there is hope or, as Paul puts it…[6]
• Romans 8:37-39 - No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[7]

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Mt 27:45–28:10). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Gooder, P. (2015). This Risen Existence: The Spirit of Easter (p. 5). Fortress Press.
[3] Gooder, P. (2015). This Risen Existence: The Spirit of Easter (p. 7). Fortress Press.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Ga 2:20–21). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Gooder, P. (2015). This Risen Existence: The Spirit of Easter (p. 14). Fortress Press.
[6] Gooder, P. (2015). This Risen Existence: The Spirit of Easter (p. 17). Fortress Press.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Ro 8:37–39). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.