Raised: The Resurrection Changed The World

Luke 24:1-53 (Read Lk 24:25-32, 44-48); Key Verse: Lk 24:27, 44

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Change the world. In the movie trailer of The Son of God, Jesus meets Peter, got into his fishing boat and helped him experience a miraculous catch of fish. Then Jesus called him to be his disciple and said, "Come with me." Peter asked, "What are we going to do?" Jesus said, "Change the world." How would this ever be possible? Even according to secular historians (and not just Christian historians) there is a reason. Within a two to three centuries world history changed from a secular pagan society based on classical deeply rooted Greco-Roman culture and values to Christianity. The single reason for this was because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this sermon, let us consider how the resurrection changes the world. The Resurrection is:

1. Paradigm shattering: It shatters your strongly held assumptions.
2. Scripture clarifying: It elucidates, illuminates and clarifies the Bible.
3. Life altering: It changes not only your life, but the world.
4. King worthy: Finally, you have a worthy king.

(This is based on a 52 min sermon by Tim Keller at TGC 2013: Jesus Vindicated. Keller's theme: The resurrection, paired with the cross, is the key to understanding all of Scripture and to resolving life's deepest issue of death. Whatever is lost in this life (youth, health, loved ones) is lost forever. But the resurrection means that nothing will ever be lost. The resurrection is not consolation for something that is lost but the restoration of all that is lost. Can there be any better news than this?)

Luke 24 can be divided into four parts:

1. The Tomb (Lk 24:1-12): The women.
2. The Road (Lk 24:13-35): Two men.
3. The Room (Lk 24:36-49): The disciples.
4. The Mount (Lk 24:50-53): The ascension.

The four themes/messages that run through Luke 24 are:

1. The Resurrection is a Shattering Historical Event
   
2. The Resurrection is a Key to Understanding All of Scripture
   
3. The Resurrection Gives Us a Powerful Message for the World
   
4. Jesus is the True King

I. The Resurrection is a Shattering Historical Event (Paradigm Shattering: It Shatters Your Strongly Held Assumptions.)

Experiencing the resurrection. Christians tend to regard the resurrection as experiencing the power of God and experiencing some higher spiritual truths through the presence of the resurrected Christ being with us. We might say, "Have resurrection faith" as though when we have it and exercise it, we will be able to overcome anything in life. However, in Lk 24:38-42 Jesus basically says to his surprised disciples about his resurrection, "Touch me and give me something to eat." It seems so trivial. What is so relevant or spiritual or powerful about Jesus eating fish and chips with his disciples? Why is this even in the Bible? It is because it happened. It is an eyewitness account.

If you're making up the resurrection you would not have women be the first witnesses. In Lk 24:1-12 it is remarkable that the first witnesses of the resurrection were women. At that time women were regarded as low status compared to men. Their testimony was not admissible in court, neither in Roman jurisprudence nor in Jewish jurisprudence. Therefore, if someone wanted to make up a story or a legend about anything, they would never put women as the first eyewitnesses, for they would not be regarded as credible. It would undermine the plausibility of the account with any of the hearers or readers of the time. Thus, the only reason the gospel writers would put women as the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection, was because they were the first eyewitnesses.

Like footnotes in our books. Scholars have said that the gospel narratives including Luke 24 are eyewitness accounts from the limited vantage point of individuals at the actual scene of what is happening on the inside at ground level. This is as opposed to the perspective of an omniscient narrator that sees the whole big picture and reports everything that is happening. Why are certain names in the narratives, such as Cleopas (Lk 24:18), but not the other disciple? Why were the names of the women Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James (Lk 24:10) mentioned? These were like our footnotes in our books. Thus, if anyone wanted to check out the credibility of their accounts, they could go and ask those people mentioned. Also, why when Simon of Cyrene was asked to carry the cross for Jesus, Mk 15:21 mentions that he is the father of Rufus and Alexander, who are not involved in the story? According to historians, Simon was a well known person who was a witness of the resurrection for many decades.

Something shattered their paradigm. Lk 24:52 says, "they worshiped him." This is significant. Jewish people are the last people on earth who could be open to the idea that a human being could be God. This was like an absolute unshakable paradigm and worldview. They could not say the name of God (YHWH). They could not write the name G_D. But within a short time, they were worshiping a man. How did this happen? It did not happen gradually over time. Something must have shattered their paradigm. What what was it? A historic fact. They saw Jesus who had risen from the dead.

What do we learn here?

Like it or not the resurrection is a fact. In the early church the resurrection of Christ was not preached as experiencing some higher spiritual truth, or experiencing some supernatural power, or as having some glorious hope. The resurrection of Christ was preached as a hard, bare, uncomfortable, terribly irritating, paradigm shattering, horribly inconvenient fact, albeit a fact hard to dismiss or ignore. A fact may not be something that is liked. But like it or not the fact is there. What can one do about some fact they do not like? They have to accept it. But this is not the way our culture works. It is based on "likes" and "dislikes." 

The resurrection changed Paul's life. Paul is a good example. He disliked Christianity and Christians. He was offended by the gospel. He was offended that a temple and sacrifices was no longer needed. It was outrageous to him and it outraged him. He was terribly offended by the very idea of Christianity. But he saw Jesus risen from the dead. After that his likes and dislikes did not matter. Nothing else mattered. The resurrection was a fact to him.

The most offensive and unbelievable religion. We should be very sympathetic toward our skeptical friends. Christianity may be the most irritating and unbelievable religion on the face of the earth. How do people come to believe? They read the Bible and decide whether they like it or not. Many say they can never be a Christian because there are parts of the Bible they find offensive. They may find teachings about money or about sex offensive or restrictive. But do the "offensive" parts of the Bible mean that Jesus could not have been raised from the dead? For if Jesus has been raised from the dead, like it or not, someday we will have to face the fact and deal with it, including all the parts of the Bible that is felt to be offensive. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, why even be offended and vexed by the offensive parts of the Bible. Paul was more offended by Christianity than most people today. He was killing Christians. But when he faced the fact that Christ was raised from the dead, nothing else mattered. Christianity is a paradigm shifting, life shattering historical event.

II. The Resurrection is a Key to Understanding All of Scripture (Scripture Clarifying: It Illuminates, Elucidates and Clarifies the Entire Bible.) (20 min)

The resurrection helped the women understand Jesus' words. Lk 24:6-8 says, "Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words." In light of the resurrection, Jesus' words began to make sense.

The resurrection, paired with the cross is the key. In Lk 24:10-11 the men on the road to Emmaus say, "The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." They were expecting a Messiah who would save them, but he was crucified. Jesus rebuked them, “'How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Lk 24:25-27). The resurrection, paired with the cross, makes sense of the crucifixion and opens all of Scripture.

How could one who was cursed and crucified by the Messiah? When Paul was blind for three days after meeting the Risen Christ (Ac 9:9), he had to confront his own thoughts about God and the Bible. He believed that the Messiah would come and save his people. This Messiah would love God and please God, and God would love him and be pleased with him and bless him. The Messiah would have the favor of God. But Jesus who was supposed to be the Messiah was crucified and died on the cross. The crucifixion was the most ignominious of deaths. Dt 21:23 says, "anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse." Jesus also cried out, "Why have you forsaken me?" (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). To Paul, Christianity made no sense at all. This totally baffled and confounded him. To him, the Messiah would be blessed by God and supported by God, not be crucified, abandoned, forsaken and killed. Jesus was cursed by God (Gal 3:13). What kind of salvation could this bring?

Then Paul met Jesus who rose from the dead. Paul had to completely rethink what he was always confident of: If Jesus was raised from the dead, it means that God did vindicate him. Then God is pleased with him, and that God does love him and bless him. Therefore, when Jesus was cursed and abandoned, then he must have been cursed and abandoned for somebody else's sin, not his own.

In light of the resurrection, what do the Scriptures say? Paul then had to re-look at the Scriptures again. In Isaiah God is the reigning King (Isa 52:7). But there is also a strange figure of a suffering servant (Isa 52:13-53:12). Could they both be the same person? What about the temple and the sacrificial system? Could the shedding of all the blood of the sacrificed animals have atoned for man's sin? Could this be pointing to someone else? To Jesus? If this was pointing to Jesus, what does this say about the temple and the sacrificial system? What about in Jeremiah when God was speaking about a new covenant and about writing his law in their hearts and minds (Jer 31:31-33)? What about in Ezekiel when God would give his people a new heart (Eze 36:26)? It would seem as though there would no longer be a need for a temple and the sacrificial system if God would speak to his people directly. Could Jesus be the One the (OT) Scriptures were pointing to? What about the promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2-3)? How could all nations on earth be blessed through Abraham? Once Paul understood the resurrection, paired with the cross, all of the Scriptures opened up to him. Upon meeting the Risen Christ, it all began to make sense to him. He would now read the Bible and see it differently from before.

Paul was expecting a strong Messiah to save the strong, as it were. The Messiah would come in power and glory and summon all those who are strong and resolute to summon up their strength to follow him and obey him fully. Instead, he began to realize that it was a Messiah coming in weakness who came to save those who admit their weaknesses and their need for a Savior. Once he understood this, the Scriptures opened up for him. In Luke 24, Jesus was repeatedly opening the Scripture to his people (Lk 24:32, 45).

Jesus says that all the Scripture is about Jesus (Lk 24:27, 44). The practical application is that when we teach the Bible or preach from the pulpit from whatever part of the Bible, to do it well and properly we need to show from the the text how it points to Jesus and leads us to see Jesus. This is a big and controversial subject. But Jesus seems to be saying here that "it is all about me." This does not mean that every single verse is about Jesus. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it is about an unexpected savior. At the risk of his life, he rescued a wounded Jewish man who would otherwise have died. Jesus was telling a parable. He was not saying that he is the Good Samaritan. But when we understand that all the plot lines of the Bible end in Jesus, how could we possibly see that it is not about Jesus. It is because Jesus is the ultimate Unexpected Savior who comes not at the risk of his life but at the cost of his life to give us the opposite of what we expect or deserve (anger, wrath and judgment). 

People can only watch The Sixth Sense twice. The first time we would be surprised by the big shocking ending. Watching it the second time, we cannot possibly watch the movie and see all the earlier parts and earlier scenes of the movie without thinking of the shocking ending: Bruce Willis is dead and he is a ghost. It is like an anti-gospel and the opposite of the gospel: The hero is dead but Jesus our hero is alive. Similarly, when we grasp the meaning of the Resurrection, reading the Bible would render meanings we may have never noticed before. We can now begin to read the Bible newly in light of the ending. It is not possible to do otherwise when we know how the story ends. We begin to see how Jesus is the ultimate example of a particular text, whether or not the author intended it to be a messianic prophecy when he wrote it.

Our sermons and Bible teaching would be entirely information and instruction unless and until and if we get to Jesus. Are we just explaining the biblical text or are we preaching the gospel of our salvation? Here is what John Calvin says about Christ in All of Scripture. The conclusion says, "This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father. If one were to sift thoroughly the Law and the Prophets, he would not find a single word which would not draw and bring us to him. . . . Therefore, rightly does Saint Paul say in another passage that he would know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

III. The Resurrection Gives Us a Powerful Message for the World (Life Altering: It Changes Not Only Your Life, but the Entire World.) (34 min)

When anyone meets the Risen Christ, they take the message to others (Lk 24:9, 33-35, 46-48). Knowing about the resurrection gives Jesus' people a message to take out to the world. Reading through the book of Acts, the resurrection dominates the preaching of Peter and Paul. The message of the resurrection changed the world because it was unique. It was never heard of before. It was unlike everything that anyone had ever known. Mainly the resurrection gives us hope for the future in that the resurrection is:

1. there
2. personal
3. certain
4. unimaginably wonderful

The future is there. Epicurus believed that when you die you're gone, so there is nothing to be afraid of. Many people believe in an afterlife that is vague, nebulous or imprecise. Even the Sadduces among the Jewish religious leaders did not believe in the resurrection (Ac 23:8), which suggests that they did not believe in an afterlife. But anyone who met a Christian who had met the Risen Christ, their lives were different from the rest of the populace. Finally, you know that you are not just dust in the wind, that you are not just a rock sinking to the bottom. There is a future. The resurrection says that there is a future.

The future is personal. The Stoics believe that after death one continues to exist but not as ourselves, but as a part of the universe and the world. Without the Holy Spirit the deepest desire of the human heart is that we want to be loved. The one thing no one wants is to loose the one we loves. But death takes away and strips away everything that we love. Jesus shows up and says, "It is me. Touch me." Some people like to profess, "I'm not afraid of death." They are not being honest with themselves.

The future is certain. Suffering would be intolerable unless one is sure of their salvation. But Christians can be certain because of the resurrection. How can we be sure? If someone has served his 10 year jail sentence, the sentence is paid. If someone has a receipt of a purchased item, he or she does not have to pay for it again. Thus, Jesus has paid for the wages of sin through his death and resurrection.

The future is unimaginably wonderful. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a dark poem called "The Raven." After losing a loved one, Lenore, he was attempting to overcome his loss. He meets a raven who repeatedly says only one thing, "Nevermore." Whatever we lose in this life (youth, health, loved ones) is lost forever. But the resurrection means that you will lose nothing. The resurrection is not consolation for something that you lost but the restoration of all that you lost. There is no religion, philosophy or ideology that has offered anyone this kind of future,T a future that is there, is personal, is certain and is unimaginably wonderful. There is no more powerful message possible, and it is based on the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Some ethical teachings may bother skeptics and seekers. But the key of Christianity is the resurrection, paired with the cross, that promises a hope and life that is unimaginably wonderful. Would anyone really not want that?

IV. Jesus is the True King (King Worthy: Finally, You Have a Worthy King)

The true king. Twice Jesus alludes to himself as the king without referring to himself as such. Lk 24:25-26 says, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Lk 24:46-47 say, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations...” Twice Jesus did not use the word "I" but refers to himself as "the Messiah," who is the King of kings. That is how Jesus goes out (Lk 24:51). He is saying, "I am the King. I am the true King."

We serve no sovereign here! After the war of independence, there was a big sign above a tavern in Philadelphia that was put up after the revolutionary war. It said, "WE SERVE NO SOVEREIGN HERE." Most nations of the world have some positive experience of bowing the knee. Asians also see the appropriateness of respecting authority. But Americans are unfamiliar with serving a monarch or a king, because their experiences are horribly negative under authoritarian British sovereignty. American sensibility, which is spreading throughout the world, says, "We serve no sovereign here. We don't bow the knee to anybody. I'm an individual and I decide what is right or wrong for ME!" A common spoken or unspoken catchphrase might be, "I am my own man. I will do my own thing in my own way according to how I feel, and no one is going to tell me otherwise."

Neither democracy nor imperialism. To overcome such a sentiment against authority, a church leader said, "The kingdom of God is not a democracy." This is true. But the kingdom of God is also not an imperialistic regime. Thus the striving for democracy and equality. C.S. Lewis, in his essay on Democratic Education, says, 

"The demand for equality has two sources -- one of them is among the noblest, the other is the basest of human emotions. The noble source is the desire for fair play. But the other source is the hatred of superiority."

No man can be trusted with unchecked power. Lewis understood man's need for democracy in his essay on Equality, "Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters." But Lewis says that "medicine (democracy) is not food," and "deny it food and it will gobble poison." It means that democracy, though necessary for equality, will not satisfy man. It is because the ultimate reality is not democracy because we were created to be ruled by a king. 

Is Jesus your king? Like it or not, Jesus is the King. God created man in his own image to be ruled by a King. But if we refuse to be ruled by Jesus the true King, we will be ruled by some other king. We will bow the knee to someone or something, even if we refuse to admit that that is what we are doing. Mankind needs a king. We will serve someone or something. Jesus is our king. Obey him as your king. It means treat him as a king. Trust him as a king. Accept what he sends into your life whether you understand it or not. Rely on him.

What is your self-worth and identity derived from? All Christians say that Jesus is our King. But some of us may derive our self-worth from our career or our church. Then our real king is that, not Jesus. What may be ruling some Christians is an identity that is deeply rooted in money, materialism, moralism or even ministry success. Instead of loving immoral people, we think we are better than them and despise them and their wayward lives. We may say we worship Jesus. But what excites us and depresses us is whether or not I feel I am being honored, recognized, respected, successful and fruitful as a Christian. Our true king is ourselves and our perception of our own success.

Treat him like a king in your prayer: John Newton says, "Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much."