The Day Death Died

The Day Death Died

“ The Message of the Empty Tomb”

A young mother found herself on the last train out of Poland during Hitler’s regime. She had her first born toddler and her newborn nursing infant with her. The bombing was fierce and the train had to stop many times for the passengers to take cover. A trip that should have taken a few hours took a few days. The food ran out and there were no liquids to be had. Consequently, when they arrived at their destination, the infant was starving and ill. A group of nuns met her there and took the baby to their hospital where they would nurse it back to health. The mother felt great relief at the apparent reprieve. But the joy was short lived. The next morning she was given the news that the hospital had been bombed during the night and that her baby had not survived. The mother was given a flashlight to search for her baby’s body. What a tragic scene. Imagine the confusion. The pain. The grief. The hopelessness of a mother who herself was a doctor whose hands and skill had no doubt saved many but now could do nothing in this situation.

Death without Christ provides the same sense of hopelessness.

But imagine a different ending. Imagine the mother desperately seeking through the rubble with her little one in tow. She is crying loudly together with many others in the same situation when all of a sudden, there is another cry. The sound of an infant. Could it be? She runs to where the sound comes from and there in the rubble she finds her baby still alive. What incredible relief, mingled with joy. All the questions now do not need to be answered. All the “what if’s” no longer matter. Her baby is alive.

That’s what the resurrection of Christ does with death. The certainty of knowing Christ and the reality of his resurrection changes the mood of death from a sense of hopelessness into joyful rejoicing. Not just then, but now. It is the event that separates the Christian Faith from all other religion and gives to it power.

So Paul can write in 1 Cor 15:14,17 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

On the morning of the Resurrection, the Angel of the Lord appeared to the women who came to the tomb and gave them a message. That message is recorded for us in Matthew 28:1-8.  And that message, while it is nearly 2,000 years old, is relevant to us today.

Matthew 28 ^1-4 After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn’t move.^5-6 The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.⁷ “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ That’s the message.”

The significance of this message for us today is established in the opening sentence of the chapter.
“After the Sabbath, at dawn.” In the King James – “Just before the dawn” This is a significant statement and we should halt here for a moment. It speaks of the promise of a new day.

The last sentence of the last chapter ends so dismally with the words “So they posted a guard.” It was the end of the story.

All that remained was for the body to decay, and with it all of the memories of those three awesome years. But the next sentence. \”Just before dawn.” Those are the darkest hours, but with them come the promise of a new day. The brightest hope was to be born in a few hours.

A new covenant would be made between God and man.

And when the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes a reality to us. When He rises in our hearts this is what happens. A new day breaks, and religion changes to relationship. The reasoning of man becomes secondary to the reality of the living Christ in us. A new day and a new hope begins with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are several truths about this new day contained in the angels message that give us hope in moments such as this.

First, it is A Day In Which Fear is Neutralized.

\”Fear not\”  said the angel.

Those who have placed their faith in the resurrected Christ have nothing to fear! It\’s interesting that these women are greeted with the same words the shepherds were greeted with at Christ\’s birth.

The birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are related!  He was born so that He could die and rise again! The Message of Christmas finds its fulfillment in the Message of the Empty Tomb! Christmas is the promise, and Easter is the Proof!

One of the fears that the resurrection of Jesus removes is the fear of Death’s Destruction

1 Cor 15: 42 Paul says, “We are sown perishable. But because of the resurrection we are raised imperishable.”
We are born into this life as perishable beings. But because of the resurrection we have eternal life. From the moment a person receives forgiveness through belief in Jesus Christ you have victory over death. Your physical body might fail you or fade from you, but your soul will never die. You will be raised, forever to live with Christ in heaven.
In the resurrection account in Luke\’s gospel the angel said to the women at the empty tomb, \”Why do you seek the living among the dead?\” They did not understand, but they soon would. When they realize what he meant they would no longer spend their lives fascinated with death. They would spend the rest of their lives fascinated with life.

A little girl who had to walk through a cemetery on her way home from school was asked if she was afraid. \”No\” she replied. \”I simply cross it to get home.\”

That is what the resurrection has done with death. It has turned it into a harmless pathway on our journey home. As Jesus was resurrected from death, so the resurrection awaits us all. Those who are in Christ will be raised from death to live with Him forever. The fear of death has gone.
The resurrection removes the fear of death because it Removes The Power of Death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil–  15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Someone suggested that when Jesus came to the door of the tomb, His first step on resurrection soil caused the silence of the first Easter morning to be broken by the muffled crunch of a serpent\’s skull.

I like that. The devil no longer has power over death. He is a defeated foe. He may be alive but he is not well. He is mortally wounded. Paul says in the later verses, \”Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory.\” In Christ, the greatest and the lowliest have the assurance that death is no longer victor because of the resurrection of Christ.
About fifteen years before Mahatma Gahndi died, he wrote,\” I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find a solace in the Bhagavad that I miss even in the sermon on the mount.\” Then, just before his death He wrote: \”My days are numbered, I am not likely to live very long – For the first time in fifty years I find myself in the slough of despond. All about me is darkness; I am praying for light.\”

The resurrection of Jesus has brought us out of the darkness of death into His marvelous light.

Into marvelous light I’m running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way!

My dead heart now is beating,
My deepest stains now clean.
Your breath fills up my lungs.
Now I’m free. now I’m free!

Christ\’s resurrection takes away the STING of death and it takes away the SOURCE of death: The resurrection removes the fear of death’s destruction because It removes the Fear of Sin\’s Dominion.

James 1:14-15 “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Rom 6:23a. Why does man die?  Because of SIN.  Sin is the source of death but because of Christ\’s victory at Calvary, my sin has been removed: 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, 2 Cor. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. Romans 8:3 God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

In order to have eternal life, I must place my faith in the finished work of Jesus!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ removes the fear of sin’s dominion. Through the new nature that I have through Jesus Christ, sin loses it\’s power. Temptation no longer ends in death because He has provided a way of escape according to 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

So we see that it removes the fear of Deaths destruction. It removes the fear of Sin’s dominion, but what about Life’s Dilemmas?

In 1 Corinthians 15:43 Paul says that apart from the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, we are sown in weakness. But through the resurrection we are raised in power. We are born weak with no power to overcome the many obstacles that we face in life. But the Bible says that all power is given unto those who believe. Though we were dead, yet shall we live.

Many people today are afraid of life. They are afraid of what tomorrow holds for them.  They are so wrapped up in the things of this world, so dependent on material things, that they have no joy in living.  Because Jesus is alive, those who are genuinely seeking Him can face each day with calm assurance.

The women went away from Jesus’ tomb with \”great joy\”, a great calm and assurance that everything is going to be all right.  For those who know Jesus, life is not dependent on the stock market, employment or economics.  Life is worth living because Jesus is our Life!

You see, the promise of the resurrection is not that there is no death. It is not that God won’t let you or your loved ones die. The promise of the resurrection is not that faith is easy. The promise and the hope of the resurrection is this. That above the greatest storms of your soul, one word is forever etched in the heavens. The word “Nevertheless” Nevertheless says that when it’s all gone wrong, that is not the final word.
Listen. The most important thing we can learn today is this. Easter is not great for us because it makes us feel good, with all it’s pageants and singing and beautiful new dresses and new bonnets, and the music and the sunshine and the birds and the flowers and the baskets full of chocolate eggs. Easter is great because it is God’s great nevertheless in a life full of uncertainty. And we need that hope this morning and every morning.

Easter gives us the promise of a new day. A day in which Fear is neutralized. It is also the promise of A Day in Which Faith is Personalized

\”COME, SEE” said the angel. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Must be personally experienced.  The Angel invited these women to see for themselves that Jesus was alive. YOU must experience the Resurrection for yourself.  It cannot be experienced for you. The faith of the women in the resurrection was not enough for the disciples; the disciples had to see for themselves that Jesus was alive.

The experience, if valid, will change your life
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

All you need is to experience the reality of the resurrected Christ! The Resurrection is a truth that can be experienced.  It is not some dry, dusty point of ancient theology.  It is a relevant truth that will change your life. So many in our broken, messed up world desperately need to experience that reality today. Jesus says, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He did not say come unto me so that I can give you some more bondage or a new load of religious rules that you must live by. He calls us to come to Him and experience His life empowered by His resurrected strength in us.

This is a new day. A day in which death is neutralized and Faith is personalized and most importantly its a day in which the Faithful Are Mobilized.

\”GO QUICKLY, AND TELL\” v. 7, 10 This is the responsibility of every person who has met the resurrected Christ. Those of us who claim to be followers of the Resurrected Christ ought to be excited, just as these women were, about telling what we know! He\’s alive! And He lives within my heart! And He wants to live in the heart of every person who will by faith receive Him! Too often, I believe, our experiences with Christ are just empty ritual. They have no real impact on how we behave or how we live. The resurrection of Jesus changed the lives of those early followers of Jesus. It gave them boldness; it removed their fear. They were not afraid or ashamed to tell others that \”He\’s alive\”! Are we doing the same?

May it be different this Easter. My it be different this month. May we leave this page so moved by the reality of the resurrection of Christ that we will be compelled to go and tell. May our response to what Christ has dome for us be as that of Paul\’s 2 Cor. 5:14-15 For Christ\’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 20 We are therefore Christ\’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ\’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 6:1As God\’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God\’s grace in vain. 2For he says, \”In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.\”

I tell you, now is the time of God\’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

Happy Easter!
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