Sermon
An Impossible Assignment And The Great Discovery
April 20, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

You and I have lived through some great moments of history the last few hours in our nation. We have witnessed a plane take off, by way of our television set, from an airfield in Germany with seven very brave people, prisoners of war. They made their way across the Atlantic and they arrived at an airbase in Texas. You and I saw history written. We observed as that big plane dropped its front door opening and the stairs, and we anticipated to see those seven brave people come out of that plane. We sat there, I'm sure as you and myself, before our television and tremendously just bound almost to still framed.

I remember back to previous war as we brought home our prisoners of war, it was a moment of history. And then I watched, as you, we watched as they lowered that back opening of the plane and those folks began to descend out of that plane. I was particularly interested in one mom and dad knowing that their son was one who had been shot down, and now was home. And mom could hardly wait, and I look at that because I'm a dad, and you always let mom express her emotions first in a great event like that. And after she's cried her tears then you as a dad get your chance to hug your loved one. And I watched dad as he stood there so anxious while mom was taking so long to welcome her son. And then when mom was finished old dad just wrapped his great big arms around that young man, and I watched the tears flowed.

Those were the intimate parts to a great moment of history. And what took place before our eyes has been catalog in the annals of history and generations to come will read of the moment that you and I observed first-hand in the last few hours, because it's a part of history.

And today you and I are going, just for moment, to visit a scene that is also a part of history and that is the resurrection of our wonderful Lord and Savior. We go to Matthew 28, and in your notes I have it printed there for you.

"Now after the Sabbath as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." -- Gone. "See the place where the Lord lay.
"And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed, He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you."
So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word."

I begin our notes by suggesting that one thing is sure, and that is that Jesus of Nazareth belongs to history. We know when He lived, between the years of 5 and 6 B.C., and 30 to 32 A.D. We know where He was born, in Bethlehem, in a real town, not a mythological cloud. We know where He spent most of the years of His life, in Nazareth, far north in Galilee, where He worked as a carpenter. We know many of the characters of His day from literature apart from the New Testament, for the names of Herod the Great, his son, Herod Agippa, Pontius Pilate, Tiberias Caesar, Felix and Festus. These men's names are found in many of the secular writings of the first century.

Every history of the ancient world, embracing the first century of our era, is compelled to say something about Jesus Christ; and every encyclopedia published in the western world must record the fact that Jesus lived. The very dates we use, designated by the letters A.D. and B.C., bear witness to the fact that one Jesus Christ appeared on this earth.

Not only did this person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth live on earth among men at a definite time, in a definite place, among historic characters, speaking as man to man, and going about doing good, but this man Jesus also died. We know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, then we know about the death of any other one man in all of ancient history. We know of the five trials which Jesus underwent within the last eight hours: two before the Jewish authorities, two before Pilate, and one before Herod. We know what men said to Jesus, what they said against Him, and what He said to them.

There is nothing mythical, or even "theological" about the birth, the life and the death of Jesus Christ; it is all solid, definite, historical fact.

And concerning His death, something happened to the body of Jesus when it was taken down from the cross. The New Testament testifies that it was placed in a tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. On Sunday morning, for one reason or another, that tomb was empty, as everyone admits--Christians, unbeliever, disciple, scoffer, Jew and Gentile, conservative and modernist. We are here in the realm of history. The reality of the Resurrection of Christ is something we may judge as we do any other historical event. The criteria for determining what Caesar did at Gaul, or how the Goths sacked Rome, or what happened at Waterloo, are the criteria by which we determine what happened on the first Easter morning.

So, when we are discussing the birth, the life and the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in this realm concerning the greatest of all miracles, we are face to face with definite, historical data. This is one reason that makes our own faith superior to all other faiths of history.

The distinguished classical scholar, Dr. Clifford Herbert Moore of Harvard University, in his great work THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT OF THE GREEKS, has well said, "Christianity knew its Saviour and Redeemer not as some god whose history was contained in a mythical faith, with rude, primitive, and even offensive elements, as were the stories of Attis or Osiris, and to a degree of Dionysus. Such myths required violent interpretation to make them acceptable to enlightened minds. On the contrary, the Christian Saviour had lived and associated with men whose minds and senses had apprehended His person, His acts, and His character. These witnesses had transmitted their knowledge directly, and they had testified to the life of Jesus Christ and His teaching. Jesus was then a historical, not a mythical being. No remote or foul myth obtruded itself into the Christian believer; his faith was founded on positive, historical and acceptable facts."

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact. It's very interesting, folks, when you study much of the material that's been written about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and you venture into the field of the skeptic and the agnostic and those who have written because they reject the supernatural, it's amazing what they have to say. H. G. Wells, the great atheist, who absolutely detested Jesus, he wrote a book the history of the world, The Outline Of World History, it's entitled. And even though he resented, he didn't want to talk about, this person Jesus, yet, because Jesus Christ is a fact of history to make his history book complete he had to include some paragraphs concerning Jesus.

It's interesting that when you read the writings of the skeptics, those who reject the supernatural, there is one thing in most of their writings that sticks in their throat and it's this; they may say I don't believe in the resurrection, but there's a historical fact that must be faced and they all must face it. And the historical fact is this, that tomb was empty on Sunday morning. And even those, again, like I say, who want to reject the resurrection, the thing they've got to deal with is a historical fact; that tomb was empty, and how do you explain it? And they've concocted all kinds of theories on the reason why the tomb was empty.

In fact, the interesting thing about it, and we have this written in Roman history, and we have this written in Jewish history, that when those guards came back to report the empty tomb those Jewish authorities not for one minute rejected their story. They could have gone out to that tomb to make sure that it was true. They knew that tomb was empty. They knew it. It was a fact.

And what they did in order to explain it away was they said to the guards we'll pay you off to tell a lie. We want you to tell the folks that while you were sleeping Jesus' disciples came and stole his body away, and we'll give you money and we'll cover for you, and if the governor gets upset we'll take care of it. That's the agreement. That story has been recorded in Jewish history and has been passed down even to this day.

Now think with me, first of all to make such an admittance would be to say I am guilty of death, because any guard who went to sleep on duty was shot. You never went asleep on duty. Secondly, how do you know what's taking place when you're asleep? You didn't know what was taking place around you at 2:30 this morning when you were asleep in your bed. Can you hear those guards say, well, I was asleep, but Jesus' disciples came and got him while I was asleep. Can you see how foolish the explanation is?

And yet, what you find folks is most critics and most people who reject the resurrection, because they don't believe in the supernatural, they have to deal again with history and history writes the fact that tomb was empty. You've got to explain it. And that's what stops most of the critics.

Go with me to the top of page 6. I speaking of the resurrection and the fact of Christ as historical facts. And concerning His burial, we know more about the burial of the Lord Jesus than we know about any other single character in all ancient history; more about His burial than we do about any Old Testament character, of any king of Babylon, any Pharaoh of Egypt, any philosopher of Greece, or triumphant Caesar. We know who took His body from the cross; we know something of the wrapping of the body in spices, we know the very tomb in which this body was placed, we know the name of the man who owned it, Joseph, of a town known as Arimathaea. We know minute details concerning events immediately subsequent to our Lord's entombment, that a stone was rolled against the tomb, that this stone was sealed, and that, by the wish of the Jews, Roman guards were set before the tomb to prevent the body being stolen. These are historical facts.

The two primary testimonies, and there are many secondary ones, to the fact of Christ's resurrection, have always been recognized as resting upon two facts, concerning which the New Testament is most emphatically insistent, and we believe transparently clear. Number 1, the fact that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was, on Sunday morning of the same week, found to be empty; and the fact that Christ Jesus, in His own risen body, appeared to His own disciples. That's fact.

Now you say, Pastor, what's the issue today? Well, there are a lot of people who think that we're a little odd. That we've got a religion that's based upon teachings that are ancient and we really don't have much fact. But, ladies and gentlemen, this is the wondrous truth about our Christian faith; it's based on fact. And just as those moms and dads and all the folks down at the airbase rejoiced in a glorious moment of history, because it was fact -- that plane landed on the airstrip, that plane had those wonderful boys and girls that would have given their life is necessary for us, that's a fact, and they rejoiced.

And when we come today and we sing the great songs of triumph, we are rejoicing in a fact of history. It happened! And as the result we have all the reason in the world to jump, but we have every reason. I watched those wonderful people as they greeted and loved and hugged one another, because something in history that was beautiful had happened. That's what brings great joy to us on this glorious Easter morning. We have all the reason in the world to jump for joy. Amen?

Go with me to the last page. Of the four great religions of the world resting directly upon personalities, rather than upon some philosophical system, the Christian religion is the only one, the only one -- the only one -- that even talks about an empty tomb in relation to its founder. Abraham, the founder of Judaism died somewhere about 1900 B.C. but no resurrection was ever suggested or claimed. In fact, his burial place has been carefully preserved over the centuries, and even to this day there's a mosque built over that spot. The original accounts of Buddha never ascribe to him any such thing as a resurrection. Mohammed died on June 8, 632 and was buried in Medina, a place visited by millions of his followers each year.

Christianity believes, as a historical fact, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after His burial, that He ascended into heaven where He is interceding for the saints as our Great High Priest...and that some day in future, He will return for His followers and rapture them into His eternal presence to live with Him forever. That's going to be another fact of history and eternity.

Look what Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

That's going to be a historical fact too. And we're going to share in that great joyous moment.

So, belief in the resurrection is central to the gift of salvation and eternal life. Paul writes, and we already commented on this, "...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with mouth confession is made unto salvation."

When we declare Jesus Christ is Lord it is to say that He holds the supreme place in our life. And to believe in the resurrection is the declare that Christ is alive today, reigning in heaven as our Master and our Great High priest. We declare these truths with our mouth in open confession and witness. We've done that today, haven't we? And when we do this, we are saved and forgiven. Amen?

That's why Easter is the thrilling day of all days for us as Christians. Amen? Would you stand with me please.

Lord Jesus, it's been a wonderful time being in Your house. We came because we wanted to honor You and to rejoice in Your victory. We've had the joy of singing the great, great hymns that have expressed our faith so vibrantly. We had the joy of declaring You as our Savior and sharing in the communion together as the great family of believers. We today can go forth with our heads held high. Our faith is not built on a myth or some ancient teaching. It's built upon a fact of history. 2000 years ago, Jesus, You conquered death, hell, sin, and the grave. You are our triumphant Christ, and we rejoice in that glorious victory today. And we bow our hearts in worship before You. And everybody said, amen! God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you for coming.