Easter - Why it Matters!

Our Easter sermon was a great one. We started out by talking about how Easter has become about everything else (eggs, bunnies, chicks), and how to some, it's intellectually offensive to say that a man walked out of the grave. But, if there is no Easter, there is no Christianity. Christianity is all about the resurrection. If Jesus didn't defeat death, He's just another man, just another teacher. He has to rise to be taken seriously. The resurrection changes the game, and we should all take it seriously! If there was no resurrection, then church has no more purpose than a PTA meeting. Jesus couldn't be all He claimed to be, apart from the resurrection.

The Bible is the only account of the resurrection. The Bible is not just a book, it's a collection of accounts. It's a series of books and letters written by 40 authors. It has 66 books. In the Bible, there are 24 who were eyewitnesses or close friends of those who were there for the resurrection. You cannot claim that you don't believe in the resurrection just because it's only in the Bible and you don't believe the Bible. The people of the Bible lived there when it took place. Their accounts have remained through time.

Matthew was a tax collector, not a religious guy. But, he came to be a follower because he saw Jesus die, be buried, and alive again. He spent his life telling others because he saw it. He wasn't the only one. Mark was close friends with Peter and wrote his record from Peter. Luke was a doctor. His goal was to be thorough. He interviewed people and journaled it all. If what Luke claimed was false, and Jesus didn't rise again, then the people of that time would've just taken him to the grave and said look, Jesus is still in there. But they couldn't do that, because what Luke claimed was true.

The authors of the gospels weren't about starting a church. Their goal was all about knowing that Jesus died and rose again. If you don't believe the Bible, then what you're saying is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all lying or they're confused.

John was very intimate with Jesus. So intimate that Jesus told John to take care of His Mom. You don't ask someone to do that unless you are very close. John saw it all: His death, burial, and Him alive again. John was imprisoned because of what he believed he saw. Peter was a coward. He bailed on Jesus at the end and denied knowing Him. But, Peter was there. He saw the death and the empty tomb. He wrote 2 letters in the New Testament. He spent his life telling the story. Peter was arrested and crucified for this. He went from denying that he knew Jesus, to dying for Jesus. Something dramatic happened that he would spend his life telling others and ultimately die for it. James was the brother of Jesus and a skeptic, but he ultimately would believe that Jesus was the Son of God. He ended up risking his life to tell others that Jesus was the Son and was resurrected. Paul persecuted the church at first. He wanted to execute all of them. But, something happened and he turned into an advocate. He spread the story of the Savior more than anyone else.

So, as you can see, saying that you don't believe in the resurrection just because it's only written in the Bible is not a good reason. In order to say this, you have to discredit all of these men. It's not logical to think they all lied. There was no motivation for them to. Nothing good came from them making these claims. All of them were persecuted, some martyred, for their beliefs. There was no reason to lie.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, Paul........they all laid it on the line to spread the message. None of them believed in Jesus until it happened, until they saw it. No one expected Jesus to rise again. None of them had faith it would happen. They were all afraid when Jesus died.

It was not uncommon for the Romans to leave bodies hanging on the cross for a month, but Jerusalem would not allow them to be left overnight. Joseph and Nicodemus were secret followers of Jesus and they laid it on the line to ask for Jesus' body. They had to get His body buried before the sun went down. They prepared His body because no one expected for Him to rise again. Why did the women go to the tomb? Because they expected Him to be there. They probably didn't figure the men prepared His body right and they wanted to make sure He had a proper burial. Even after they saw an empty tomb, no one even once said He had risen. Then in Luke 24:8, it says that they remembered His words. They went to tell the others, but they didn't believe because it seemed like nonsense.

So, what happened to make them believe all of a sudden and risk their lives to spread the message? It was all because of what they saw. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 15: 3-8 that there were hundreds living who could validate his claims if they wanted to ask them. Back then, if these writers were lying, they would have known.

Why does this all matter? It matters because if you believe in the resurrection, it changes things. If you believe in a God like that, it changes your life, your perspective. It changes everything to believe in that kind of God, with that kind of love and power. That kind of belief is radical and revolutionary. It changes you! Is believing just about a moral code or church doctrine for you, or is it about a resurrected Savior that loved you so much that He died and rose again so that you could be saved?