EASTER 1998
New Hope Presbyterian Church
Rienzi, Mississippi
Eldridge E. Fleming, Ph.D.
Our Old Testament reading this morning comes from Isaiah 65:17-25.
Now from the Epistle to the Corinthians, I Corinthians 15:19-26.
The Gospel reading for the morning is from John 20:1-18, and would you stand with me as we hear the Gospel?
The word of the Lord for the people of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
One of the trying propositions of our time is whether or not the resurrection really occurred. There is currently going on the Internet a discussion of whether there was such a thing as the real literal resurrection of Jesus. For there are those who would argue that it is not necessary to have had a literal, real -- as I call it -- resurrection in order to have faith in the redemptive power of God.
But there are those who would say that it is, for without the resurrection there really is no Christian faith, and that the resurrection is the keystone on which the church is built. The whole case of whether or not we have a Christian faith is laid on top of that foundation of the resurrection. Paul said, "if he is not raised from the dead, we are of all people most miserable, for our faith is vain." There is no foundation for faith in Christ if there is no resurrection.
This Easter Sunday we look at some questions -- and for those of you who are in scholarly circles who are debating or have debated that issue many times before, and you shall -- if you are getting into philosophy and other things at this point -- you shall debate it in the future. So as an old man who is wanting to give you some sane advice, listen to my story as I tell you about it.
It is Easter, isn't it? And we come to celebrate that which is most important in our lives. Without the resurrection, I proclaim that there is no basis for our faith -- the resurrection is that important in our faith. So let us then, begin to look at our proofs. Listen now as I tell you the truth. The truth as I see it. The truth as I've experienced it. The truth as I know it.
The first witness that I would bring for the resurrection is the fact that the church exists. All over the world, there are Christian churches. Every Christian church is a testimony to the fact of the resurrection, for without the resurrection there would be no church. Did you hear what I read from John?
John said that the disciples came when Mary summoned them to the tomb. They looked in, they went in, and they left. They went to their own homes. They didn't see anything. No body was there. John tells us they didn't talk to any angels. One of the other gospel writers does. But according to John, Peter and that other disciple came, and saw no body. Jesus' body was not there. The wrappings were there, the head band was there, but no body was there. It was gone. And they left. They went on their way.
But Mary hung around. Mary hung around because she didn't have anything else to do. Grief has a way of making us hang around. We want to stay close. We want just a little more -- and Mary got a little more. For you see, she saw the men in white and they talked with her and as she was talking to them, asking them what had happened to the body, she said to them, "Where did you lay him?" sort of implying that they must have moved him out of the tomb to some other place in the garden. "After all, it's a newly hewn tomb, it was not for him -- it was for somebody else. We simply borrowed it on Friday because it was close by and we could put the body here til we could get it later. Where did you put it? Tell me where the body is." And as she sort of implied in the garden, she tilted her head to look toward the garden and there she saw the gardener. She turned to him thinking he would know more -- he was in charge of the place -- he would know where they put the body.
"Sir, where did you lay him?" Tears streamed down her face, her heart was pained, and there was anxiety about her whole perplexed attitude. "Where did you lay him? Just tell me and I'll take him away." Now Jesus must have weighed one hundred forty or one hundred fifty pounds or so at this point, even after all the emaciation that he'd been through. But she was going to pick that body up and move it. She just wanted this person to point her in the direction so she could get the body and take it away.
But he didn't answer the way she thought. He just called her name. That's all she needed.
On that morning just to hear her name being called by Jesus was all that she needed and she -- as was her normal fashion -- wanted to hug him. But when she reached for him, he said, "Don't hold me. I haven't yet ascended to my father. Go tell the disciples that you've seen me."
Something happened, and you and I today sit in this service of worship because the church came out of that testimony, out of that interchange, and out of those forty days that followed. For during that time, Jesus was with his disciples and with those other people -- five hundred people at a time saw him -- and they were all witnesses to his presence. The church was born after that, and now there are churches all over the world -- crosses on top, crosses over the altar, crosses on the tables, crosses on the walls, crosses around our necks -- all over the world. The church is a witness to the resurrection.
There's a second witness I'd call and that's the day of the week we call Sunday. Up to that time, worship in the Jewish faith had been on Saturday. We call it Saturday -- it is the Jewish Sabbath -- Saturday was their day of worship, the seventh day of the week, the last day of the week. That's when they worshiped. They still do. Six days God labored and made the heavens and the earth and all that's in them and on the seventh day, He rested and hallowed it. And that's their day of worship. That's Saturday.
Jesus was put in the borrowed tomb on Friday so that they would be able to worship beginning at sundown on Friday -- and worship through sundown on Saturday. But darkness caught them and because of the rule that they couldn't leave on a journey after sundown when their Sabbath began, the disciples stayed around until Sunday morning.
Sunday morning! But with this that happened on a Sunday morning, there was new life in the world -- the disciples came alive -- history was pivoted and changed; and now on Sunday -- on your calendar and mine -- is the day of worship for those who follow Jesus. Sunday is still the first day of the week, and the seventh day of the week is Saturday -- on your calendar and mine. It was that way when Jesus was here in the flesh, but worship for those who followed Jesus is now on Sunday, the first day of the week; and every calendar that you see witnesses by the Sunday.
This is the day of the resurrection. This is the first day of the week. Paul said, "Don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together on the first day of the week as the pattern of some is; don't neglect that gathering together on the first day of the week!" Oh, you can worship on Saturday if you want to, you can worship on Wednesday if you want to, but on the first day of the week -- the Lord's day -- make certain that you come to worship. Sunday is a witness to the resurrection. Without that event, the day of worship never would have changed. Sabbath would still be on Saturday for us, just like it is for the Jews today.
To prove the resurrection, the third witness I call is the New Testament itself -- twenty-seven testimonies to the fact of the resurrection. Not one page of the New Testament would have ever been written down or printed if Jesus had not conquered death. Not a one would have been written. No letters to the Christian Churches, no revelation from John, no gospels, no book of Acts -- nothing would have been there without the resurrection. The resurrection was that which gave momentum and power to everything that happened to those disciples and to those other followers and it has been giving that same momentum and power through the centuries ever since. The New Testament is a witness to the resurrection.
Look within the New Testament and you will find our fourth witness: the disciples themselves. The disciples were witnesses to the resurrection. I read a moment ago about Peter and John and the other disciples, and how they went to their homes. They thought it was over.
However, later that day, some of them were going down to Emmaus and this strange fellow joined up with them and talked with them along the way. They were going home -- it was over. It had been spent. The dream was great, but not a reality. It was over.
But somehow or another that body missing wasn't just a body misplaced from a borrowed tomb, because that body was alive in a different form and came to be seen by those eleven remaining disciples. It did take a week to get Thomas there, but they finally -- all of them -- saw him. Those disciples became witnesses to the resurrection. And Paul said, "As though one born out of time, he appeared to me last of all, and I am his apostle as well." Those people became witnesses to that resurrection. They knew that Jesus Christ was alive, and they were willing to die for that testimony -- and they did.
But that's not the last witness, for I want you to look at one another as we sit here in this congregation today. We are also witnesses to his resurrection, because we have experienced him by faith in our heart and we know of his grace as he has forgiven us each of our sins; and as our faith grows bright sometimes and dimmer at others -- but always is aglow -- we, too, know that there is the resurrected Christ who lives within us. We've experienced him ourselves and know that he's alive in us. Today -- throughout the world -- believers are exemplifying their faith, demonstrating his style of life, giving of one another to one another, giving of their lives so that others may have life -- as he gave his life that we might have life eternal.
Prove it? Look at those things.
Do we need more proof? I certainly have no doubt of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and I think as we consider the evidence, there is no reason why anyone should think otherwise. But we know that there are -- there are others who would doubt -- and for those we pray. And we thank God for the faith that he has given us. Amen.