The Meaning of Easter

Sermon to joint service

     The resurrection of Christ from the grave is the central belief of the Christian religion. If a person comes to believe that Jesus really was raised from the dead, then logically that person must then accept that everything else the Bible says about Jesus is true. If God gave Jesus Christ that big a validation, that big a stamp of approval, by actually reversing the verdict of death by crucifixion and bringing him up for the dead, then surely Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be- the saviour of the world and the one we must believe in and follow. 

If Jesus was not raised from the dead, but remained a corpse – then Jesus is not trustworthy- for he promised that He would rise. But if He was resurrected, then He must be genuine. The Christian faith depends on the resurrection being real.

Church history tells us that the Gospel of Mark was written about 30 or 40 years after the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection by a man called John Mark who was a translator or interpreter for the apostle Peter. The early church needed interpreters or translators just like we do- because the early church was also crossing language barriers! Mark knew Peter well and Peter gave Mark his memories of Jesus and Mark wrote down what Peter had told him in what we call the Gospel of Mark.

And Mark records that it was women who were the first to witness that the tomb was empty and Jesus was resurrected. Women were the first evangelists. Actually it was women who were last at the cross and first at the tomb, they were the most loyal to Christ. If Mark was wanting to make up a story about Jesus being raised from the dead. If he was going to fabricate a false story- he wouldn’t have said that it was women who were first to discover the tomb was empty on that First Easter Sunday. Because the testimony of women in first century Jewish society was not accepted. Women couldn’t testify in court according to the Jewish Mishnah. So Mark, if he was making the story up, would have said that it was men who discovered the empty tomb on that first Sunday.

But Mark is just writing down what he has heard from Peter and others. It was three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome who first found the empty tomb.

It was just after sunrise. So it was light. The light was shining. That’s important- because they had to see clearly into the tomb to see that the body was not there. 

As they travel to the tomb, they realise however that they had a problem. And they were discussing how to solve the problem. 

Who will move the stone away from the tomb entrance? That was the problem.

It would have been very difficult or impossible for the women to do it, so they knew they needed some others to help them. And they were wondering who they could ask to help at that time in the morning! 

But to their surprise, when they looked up, the big, heavy stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away already. 

On Easter Sunday, all the work was done by God. No problem solving was needed, no human work was needed. God just did it all.

God rolled the stone away himself.

There is a reminder here for us- when we face an obstacle that is too big for us to move- if we are in the will of God, and God wants us to get somewhere, then He will move that obstacle out of the way for us, no matter how big it is! God is still in the stone rolling business! 

The stone was rolled away from the tomb, not by human might, not by human power, but by the Spirit of God.

In the Old Testament, in the days of Zechariah the prophet, the people of God were trying to rebuild the stone temple of God. And it seemed like a big and difficult task. There weren’t many of them to do the work. Like the women approaching the tomb, the obstacles seemed too big to move. But the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah- in Zechariah Chapter 4, the word was ‘not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.’ 

In other words the temple would be built, but not by human power alone, nor by human might alone but by the Spirit of God moving in His might and power. 

And then Zechariah said ‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”

Zechariah is saying, the mighty mountain, the mighty obstacles to building the temple will be removed by God. And Zerubbabel, the governor of the Jewish people, will one day stand on the top of the temple with the capstone, the stone which was placed at the top of the temple in his hands and the temple will be completed. The building project will be completed. 

Although it seemed too difficult, too big a task, too big a mountain, too big a stone to move, God’s Spirit will bless the work and make it successful. 

God is calling us as a people to come together and to build a church. And it seems difficult, but God’s Spirit will do what He needs to do to make it work. Human planning and human effort is needed, but on its own planning is not enough, it’s necessary but not sufficient, because we will come across obstacles that only God can move.

And He will!

My friends last Sunday afternoon a prophetess, Lora Beth, shared a word which said that this church would grow very quickly. It would double and triple in size very quickly. That seems hard doesn’t it? There are lots of obstacles to that. For a start our building is too small!

How can that be? After all we have not grown much for the past 2 or 3 years. 

As we do our part, God will do the greater part and remove all obstacles. We must plan and organise, the women approaching the tomb were planning how to move the stone, but actually God had it covered, He opened up the way. 

The women go into the tomb and they see no dead body, but they see a young man dressed in white sitting on the right side of the tomb. The young man in white is an angel and he is sitting there waiting to pass on a message to them. He is sitting on the right side of the tomb- that’s how the women remember it, so that is why Mark mentions it. 

This was a group experience, all three women saw the angel. So it couldn’t have been a hallucination- one person having a hallucination is possible, but three having a hallucination of the same thing at the same time is unheard of.

They are scared, because it’s so unexpected and strange, but the young man in white speaks to them and tells them not to be scared.

He says: ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter. ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’’ 

Now on the night he was betrayed and arrested. Jesus had given a prophecy to his disciples. You can see it in Mark 14:27-28. He prophesied to them;

‘You will all fall away, for it is written ‘I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’’

Peter told Jesus that he thought his prophecy was wrong. Peter said ‘even if all fall away, I won’t fall away.’ In other words ‘Your prophecy is wrong Jesus.’

But Jesus said no ‘tonight Peter you will disown me three times.’

And true enough, when Jesus was arrested, the prophetic word came to pass, Peter denied Jesus three times. 

Can you imagine how Peter felt after having denied Jesus three times later than evening- having said three times, ‘I’m not a disciple of Jesus’. ‘I don’t even know the man.’ Can you imagine how angry he was with himself, his despair and anger? 

But he had been given a prophecy by Jesus which gave him hope. Because Jesus had said that yes he the shepherd would be struck and the sheep would all scatter and yes Peter would deny him. But the prophecy also said that he Jesus would rise and go ahead of the disciples to Galilee. 

And after Peter had betrayed Jesus, in these dark days before Easter Sunday when everything seemed black, he had a prophecy to hold on to. Jesus had given him and the other disciples hope- that He would rise and they would meet in Galilee. 

Right now, as a church, many of us are learning about prophecy and we are discovering what it is and how it works. Jesus was the perfect prophet and he is the perfect example of how to prophecy and how prophecy should work. Study the life of Jesus and you will discover things about the gift of prophecy. 

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:3 says ‘everyone who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.’

Strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Those of you who got a prophecy last week from Lora Beth should feel strengthened, encouraged and comforted. The disciples and Peter- they got what might seem a negative prophetic word from Jesus. The prophecy was that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will all scatter. The prophecy was ‘you Peter will betray me three times.’ That would feel like a pretty difficult prophecy to receive- not very strengthening, encouraging or comforting, you might think!

It wouldn’t be easy for a prophet to give that kind of prophecy today. 

But actually it was a very helpful word. Because after they had failed Jesus later that evening, Peter and the other disciples would remember or should remember that Jesus had promised he would rise and go ahead of them to Galilee. The word would have strengthened, encouraged and comforted the disciples. 

Unfortunately the disciples were slow to believe Jesus’ words of prophecy, so when Jesus did rise from the dead, they were slow to believe it had happened. Jesus did exactly what he had prophesied, he was raised from the dead, but they were shocked when it came to pass! If the disciples had held on better to the prophecy of Jesus, if they had believed it, then they would not have been quicker to believe in him when he was resurrected and saved themselves a lot of stress and anguish.

And now three days later, on that Easter Sunday morning, the angel in the tomb gives a message to the women and He says to the women ‘tell Jesus disciples and Peter – Jesus is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ 

It was a message of grace, of acceptance to those who had turned their backs on Jesus. God is saying through the angel in the tomb-yes you have been unfaithful, but I am faithful, as my Son prophesied, as He told you, He will meet you in Galilee and He specifically mentions Peter- ‘tell the disciples and Peter.’

Peter had denied being one of Jesus’ disciples, but the message is – Peter, you are still included, despite your failure, you are still in. I want to meet you. 

James Edwards in his commentary says these words: ‘God completes his plans for the church, despite human failure. If the word of grace from the resurrected Lord includes a traitor like Peter, readers of the Gospel may be assured that it includes those of their [church] community who have also failed Christ.’

How kind it was that God gave that message to the disciples and Peter.

I can imagine Peter telling Mark that episode with tears in his eyes as He remembered how gracious God was to him. 

The same God is gracious to us when we fail.

Let me share something about Mark’s gospel. It will help open up Mark’s gospel a bit.

In the Gospel of Mark, Mark repeatedly uses the same storytelling technique to get his point across. The technique is called a ‘Markan Sandwich’. In a sandwich you have a slice of bread, then you have a filler cheese or jam, or whatever in the middle and then another slice of bread.

In the Gospel of Mark- Mark starts a story, then he breaks away from the story and tells another story and then he goes back and completes his first story. And he does this nine times in his gospel. And each time he does this- he is making a different point about discipleship.

So for example he starts telling the story about Jairus coming to Jesus asking him to heal his sick daughter and then in the middle of that story, Mark brings in the story of the women who suffered from bleeding and who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed and then Mark goes back to Jairus and Jesus healing his daughter.

And the message of that sandwich is that disciples must have faith. The women, and Jairus’ daughter were healed due to faith in Jesus. 

The last time Mark does his sandwich story technique is here in the reading we heard just now- he starts telling the story of the group of women who are watching the crucifixion from a distance. And the he tells the story of Joseph of Arimathea boldly going to Pontius Pilate and asking to bury Jesus’ body and then he jumps back to the same women again who see where Jesus was buried and go to anoint Jesus’ body. 

What’s Mark trying to tell us? What’s the message in this story sandwich? 

He is saying that courage is needed in being a disciple of Jesus. It’s a message about fear and courage. It says that Joseph of Arimathea went boldly to Pontius Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. That took courage. Because he was a prominent leader in Jewish society, one of the ruling Council and by asking to bury Jesus’ body, he was saying that he was one of Jesus followers, he could get into a lot of trouble. But he had the courage to do it. 

Then the women, they are bold enough to go to the tomb on Easter Sunday. The men are hiding, they are not there to help roll the stone away, it’s just the women. That took courage. But then when the young man in white, the angel, speaks to them- they get very scared. And when the angel tells them not to be alarmed and tells them that Jesus has been raised and to tell the disciples and Peter, they are too scared to obey. 

It says they were trembling and bewildered and fled from the tomb and they didn’t tell the disciples, they were afraid. 

Mark is warning us against fear. Fear stops us obeying God’s command, we miss the will of God out of fear. And he is saying discipleship involves having enough courage to do the will of God, to obey the word of God, even when its scary. 

Only God knows the future. He already sees what will happen ahead of time. And he has a plan for all of our lives and he knows what he wants us to do and to become. God’s plan is the best plan and as you see he helps us see the plan using the gift of prophecy. But God’s plan involves putting our trust in his Son Jesus. That plan involves trusting Jesus. Jesus is alive, he is alive today and he is present here by his Spirit, he was dead but now he lives for ever and ever and he holds the keys of death. Jesus holds the keys of death. Not Mohammed, not Buddha, only Jesus.  

He is calling us to trust him. To put our faith in him. To admit our sins, our wrong doing to him and turn away from them and to receive his forgiveness. Just as he forgave Peter and the disciples, he will forgive you, he died on that cross and rose again to buy the forgiveness you need. 

Christianity isn’t a religion for good people. It’s a religion for bad people who know they are bad and who need forgiveness. Who realise they need a clean start, a new life. Jesus’ resurrection means you can have a new life. So don’t think to yourself, I’m not good enough to become a Christian. You can never be good enough to become a Christian, but the amazing thing is God doesn’t ask you to be good to become a Christian, God asks you to admit that you are bad and need forgiveness and cleansing and then you surrender yourself to Jesus and trust, trust him to do it, trust him to forgive you and bring you into a relationship with himself. That’s how you become a Christian. 

And there is no other way to find forgiveness from God but through believing in Jesus and coming to him for it. 

Jesus said at the end of Mark’s gospel to his disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned” Mark 16:15. 

So believing in Jesus, the Jesus who died but who is now alive is a matter of life and death. It’s a matter of being saved or condemned by God.

It is good news that must be believed.