THY WORD IS TRUTH
John 17:17
“The Stone Was Rolled Away”
I would like to welcome all who have come to visit Annapolis / Hopedale Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday Morning 2010 and I hope this visit will be uplifting to your spirit and you life for it is the events of the first Easter Sunday morning the day after the Jewish Sabbath is the most important events of all time in human history.
For it is the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was more than just a mere human man for in His rising from the grave after being dead for three days, He proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he not only has the power of nature but has the supernatural power over death itself.
He proves in His resurrection that he is God incarnate.
He is indeed not only risen but He was and is God with us; God in the flesh.
“The word became flesh and dwelt among us” the Apostle John tells us in his gospel
And Jesus promise in the Book of Revelation also rings true in chapter 2 verse 15, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, ...”
And these last words of the resurrected Christ dictated to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos where the book of Revelation was given to the Apostle John echo thorough out all human history as Christ declaration of victory over death.
So after the claim of victory over death and his promise that we will join him in that victory one day with the resurrection of our bodies in the last day, that great and awesome day of the Lord when all shall rise from the grave just as it was foretold through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament reading this morning. “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the due of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
And we have a beautiful spring morning on April 4th where the tulips are blooming and the birds are singing and the new life is coming again arising from the dead of winter this ywar in the coldest winter and heaviest snow fall in 50 years has given way to the new life of spring.
So let’s look at the evidence of the Resurrection of Our Lord on that first Easter morning.
And what was the evidence that demands a verdict on the most important and significant morning in all of human history.
What is the test of truth for Jesus Christ and the bible itself?
And this is one of the most important questions a Pastor can ask for it is a life or death question one of the big questions of life.
The biggest question of life is. “What happens after I die?”
And before Jesus reappearance after the death, what was the answer to that most important question in life for all in the Old Testament? “What happens after I die”?
What was the answer to that question before that first Easter morning?
The answer was “NOTHING” Your dead! You had to obey the law of Moses perfectly. No one is perfect!
Only your bones will remain and even later those bones will also return to dust; Ashes will return to ashes, dust will return to dust.
But again the promise of God in Isaiah 700 years before Christ was born in Bethlehem’s stable,
“You dead will live”.
Remember the test of truth in the bible is based upon eyewitness testimony.
The witness of Christ the Messiah is based upon the truth of eyewitnesses.
In the Law of Moses better know as the 10 Commandments, the test of truth was based upon the testimony of two or three witnesses.
And one of those commandments (the 9th commandment of the 10) is about tell something that is false, better know as "a lie".
But this commandment is stated in the 20th chapter of Exodus, “You shall not bear false witness.”
Remember that every one of Jesus of Nazareth disciples and all the women of Galilee were born under the Law of Moses.
They knew what it meant to bear false witness.
To bear false witness was to die without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
The Apostle Paul tells us this in exactly these words his second letter on his third visit to them to the church in Corinth Greece in 2Cor 13 verse 1,”This is my third visit to you and “Every matter must be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
But the evidence of the resurrection is given to us by 4 independent witnesses Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and in Paul first letter to the Corinthian church in Chapter 15
“The Resurrection Chapter” where Paul says that there were 500 witnesses to the resurrection at one time.
The Resurrection had a cloud of witnesses by the words of the Apostle Paul. It was not something done in a corner with only friends of Jesus seeing it as some New Testament scholars would have is believe and they teach in the religions departments of the Major Iniversities of America and are interviewed on TV in the history channel!
It was a public not a private event! And all you had to do to corroborate their testimony was to go and talk to the witnesses most of whom were still alive at Paul’s writings in 17 to 20 years after the crucifixion.
And how many witnesses do we have in the New Testament upon what happened on that first Easter morning.
We have 4 gospels witnesses don’t we.
We have Matthew and John who were disciples chosen by Jesus of Nazareth to be fishers of men and then we have Luke as Greek physician and historian who was the travel companion of the Apostle Paul and the author of the book of Acts and then we have Mark who was the scribe of the Apostle Peter who testified that he wrote down faithfully all that the Apostle Peter had told him and especially about the empty tomb that Peter had seen as an eyewitness.
We learned form Luke’s gospel in the NT reading this morning that the women who had traveled with Jesus and his disciples throughout his ministry in Galilee had taken spices to cover the odor of decay they might experience at the tomb.
The stone that they saw put into the opening of the tomb three days before had been rolled away.
But more importantly that tomb was empty. Halleluiah!
And then what do they tells us about what they saw?
They saw two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning. And it frightened them and they bowed their faces to the ground for it is implied the light hurt their eyes as it does when we witness as close lightning strike.
And what does one of these two lightning like figures say to these frightened women.
“Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen!”
The announcement of the resurrection is from an angel of God just like the announcement of Jesus' birth was from an angel of God.
And these supernatural figures looking like men witness to what Jesus has told them when he was with them as they traveled with him in Galilee, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raise again.” And all the women then remember that Jesus of Nazareth had indeed said these words to them but at the time Jesus told them they did not understand him.
And we learn from Luke that it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna and Mary the mother of James that told this to the apostles. But the apostles did not believe them for it sounded like nonsense to them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb to see for himself and he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself “What had Happened.”
This morning at Easter Sunrise service the community service at Hopedale with the Methodist Church and other churches of the Hopedale, we had read from all the gospels the witnesses of the other events on that first Easter morning. From the Gospel of John, we learned that John also ran to the tomb to see for himself and he arrived at the tomb before Peter and we have his testimony.
When the apostle John saw the grave clothes laying there as Peter did, John also testifies that he saw the face cloth folded as set aside. Peter apparently does not see it and walks away confused but John does see this folded face cloth for it appears only in his gospel and what does John say after he sees the fold face cloth of Jesus?
We hear the witness of the Apostle John after he and Peter looked into the tomb chapter John 20 verse 6, “Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb.
He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.
“Peter was behind John and perhaps did not see that separated folded face cloth but John was a better witness because he actually walked into the tomb.
And what does John tell us next?
What does this other disciple, John, say about what he saw, verse 8, “Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and he believed”.
John said he believed in Jesus resurrection when he saw the folded face cloth.
And why?
Because John realized that the person who had the cloth on his face must have folded it.
For if it were someone else in the tomb who took Jesus face cloth off, that another person would have just laid the face cloth aside with the linen strips that covered his body!
Could the Elders please come forward for communion:
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