He Has Risen!

Mark 16.1-7

These are words of wonder. What it must have like for these women that Sunday after Jesus died is beyond description. None of His disciples went at first. They were hiding for fear of the Jews.

Their emotional state was sadness filled with love. What is in your hands often reflects what is in your heart. They were carrying spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They were going to that grave with them to express their grief and love for their Master.

The spices were not necessary. Joseph of Arimithea and Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of an aloe-myrrh mixture when they laid Him in the tomb. This was an act of love. Many acts of love are not out of necessity but spontaneous. They were probably thinking some fresh spices would help. The fact is none of the spices were needed. They were behaving as is He was in the tomb. They were in for the shock and surprise of their (and everyone who has ever lived!) lives. 

Their conversation on the way shows they expected things to be just as they had left them before the Sabbath began. In their minds Jesus died and His body was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimithea. 

This shows how wrong followers of Jesus can be in their thinking about things.

The church in China after it reopened... Amazing!

The church in Iran. Fastest growing in the world right now!

The church in Haiti.

The church in Egypt.

This morning as we reflect on this account

1. God Keeps His Word.

Jesus always spoke about His death along with rising again.

His disciples were poor listeners.

*Their own ideas

*Their own aspirations

Their ideas were still back on Palm Sunday and what they thought was going to happen. By this time, a week later, they fully expected to Jesus to have redeemed Israel, set up the monarchy of David again and driven the Roman Soldiers out of the Land. Now He was dead, or so they thought.

*Their own desires

*Their own fears

The LORD is faithful to all His promises.

Luke 24.4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered His words.

The Resurrection of the Dead I Corinthians 15

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep

2. Christ Indeed Has Risen

Luke 24.34 The LORD has risen indeed, and He has appeared to Simon.

Many Post Resurrection Appearances 

Acts 1.3 After His suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

3.  Death Has Been Defeated.

John 20.19-22

I Thessalonians 4.13-18

The grieving over loved ones who have died in the LORD will be done away with in a moment and replaced with a glad reunion.

A dear lady from the neighborhood I grew up in will be laid to rest this week. I will have the honor of officiating her service. We have faith. Carmen's aunt who died recently in Iran, another dear Christian lady... we have faith.

Yesterday a great niece of a friend of my brother Mark and I was laid to rest. She was 12. They had asked the LORD to take her to heaven because she asked them to. She had suffered so much. Her name was Audra.

Her Mom Mel wrote: Audra is at the feet of Jesus

From Mel:

Around 2:30 this morning God answered our cry for mercy. I am so grateful that Audra is no longer suffering and that she is with Jesus. I know this sounds strange, but I believe Audra won her battle with cancer. She, like the three Hebrew young men, stood before her oppressor and declared, "I will not bow to fear and unbelief." God has proven Himself to her through these last two years as Able, Willing, and Sovereign. Now no more proof is necessary because she sees. I think it's totally fitting that her last words were, "I believe, I believe You are good." Please pray for our family, that our faith can weather the storm of our emotions as we allow God to heal us. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Please do not misunderstand. I have seen God heal people. I have seen Him do it through medicine. I have seen Him do it without any medicine or physician. I have been sensitized lately as I reflect back to the trip to Haiti in January. Pastor Joes' daughter was very sick. Art Alexander said to me during the service (yes she was there1) that we need to get her to a hospital. We prayed for her to be healed. We took her to the hospital. They stopped the bleeding then she went to another one, the Baptist Mission Hospital, the closest one to Bellevue. There they told us that if she tried to walk home from church that day she would not have made it. I have come to understand that God had us there with money to pay for her stay and if we weren't she would have died, which Paul said would be better by far.

All those who have been healed die. All those Jesus healed died! Even those Jesus raised from the dead died! C.S. Lewis wrote that, "Lazarus got the rawer deal." Mary and Martha was thrilled but poor Lazarus had to return!

The church in Egypt

The Pastor

What can we say to those who kill us?

Thank you! You gave us the blessing of dying like our LORD Jesus Christ.

You are helping fill our churches.

We love you. Jesus told us to love our enemies.

We are praying for you. Christ told us to so this.

Pray that they will come to know the love of God.

Those who lost their lives in Alexandria, Egypt last Sunday because they were followers of Jesus are at the feet of Jesus this morning with Audra.

Grief is real. We need to learn to pray our goodbyes. But here is an Eternal Hello ahead.

Jon Courson's daughter, morning devotions. Youth Pastor giving him a slip of paper. "I want to go to heaven."

John 11.25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Been doing funerals for over 38 years now. When we lose someone we are looking at the temporal. It is reality but death for the believer is being wit Christ. Billy Graham, "I wish I could die right now!"

Our faith will be sight one day!

It is not the end of History - His Story.

4. We can live in that Power Today!

"His disciples and Peter". Why was Peter singled out? At this point he needed forgiveness and encouragement. He had denied knowing Jesus just as Jesus predicted. Peter had a huge load of guilt. The angel mentioned Peter by name because he didn't feel worthy at this point to be called a disciple.

Some of you may be carrying guilt over some secret sins today. you may be beating yourself up over past failures and mistakes. Maybe your life is not what you anticipated it would be at this point. 

Jesus died to set us free from all that! Peter denied Christ three times. What was Jesus' response? He wanted Peter to know He had risen from the dead and forgave him and reinstated him. 

Some of you may be living defeated Christian lives. You are struggling over a present problem and it keeps interfering with your walk with the LORD. That all ends today!

Maybe you never have believed. Romans 10.9-10

 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

The Place Where the Road Goes Down the Mountain of Olives

 The Place Where the Road Goes Down the Mount of Olives

Luke 19.28-44

Here we are another Palm Sunday! We know the story well. I have memories of celebrating more than 50 Palm Sundays, 33 of which we were right here in this place.

We need to hear this account again. We need to commemorate Holy Week. Nearly one third of the Gospels are made up describing the events of this week beginning with yesterday. The events that took place this week are very significant, very important for followers of Jesus.

We will have services each day this week. If you can't be here follow along. I encourage everyone who can to attend the Good Friday Service.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. This is what His disciples and followers longed for. They waited for the Day when He would allow the people to proclaim Him Messiah, King of Israel. Now it was happening! The disciples were delirious with joy.

They were doing it for a crown and how it would benefit them.

Jesus was doing it for the cross and how it would benefit the entire world and generations to come!

Palm Sunday was prophesied all the way back in the Psalms (Psalm 118). 

It was spoken about by Daniel, the prophet.

It was hoped for by the people of Israel ever since the temple was destroyed in 586, B.C.

The timing of this event was precise.

Daniel told when it would be to the day! (Daniel 9.1-9)

It had to happen to fulfill Passover, so it happened at the time people were preparing for Passover, when people were going to Jerusalem to celebrate.

The place of this event was prophesied and determined by Almighty God.

It could not have taken place in Galilee. 

It had to take place in Jerusalem.

Luke 13.34 

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."

1. He was riding into Jerusalem.

On a donkey

On the foal of a colt

This was the animal of peace, an animal a conquering King would ride into the capital city after conquest.

Horses were used for war, donkeys for burdens, for a labor. A donkey and a colt would indicate good agriculture in place, abundance.

This is what Israel hoped for.

This is what Judah was judged for. With all these things they forgot God.

Isaiah tells us about in the opening of his prophecy:

Isaiah 2.6-9

6 You, O LORD, have abandoned Your people,

    the descendants of Jacob.

They are full of superstitions from the East;

    they practice divination like the Philistines

    and embrace pagan customs.

7 Their land is full of silver and gold;

    there is no end to their treasures.

Their land is full of horses;

    there is no end to their chariots.

8 Their land is full of idols;

    they bow down to the work of their hands,

    to what their fingers have made.

9 So people will be brought low

    and everyone humbled—

    do not forgive them.

For the past 30 years Jesus had looked at Jerusalem through his human eyes. Prior to His coming to the earth He looked down from Glory upon the Holy City. He saw the building of it, the dedication (When He filled it with His Presence) and the priests carrying out their duties with the assembled worshippers. He saw the sins pile up around the city and finally withdrew His Presence before Jerusalem's destruction in 586BC. After 70 years the exiles from Babylon returned. Under Nehemiah they rebuilt the walls, under Zerrubabel they rebuilt the temple. Herod expanded the work they did. Jesus came to them. He was rejected time and time again and finally on this day 2,000 years ago He rode in allowing them to proclaim Him King, the Messiah.

Zechariah 9.9 

No wonder...

2. He wept over the city. v.41

Wept= lament, mourn, bewail as one does over the dead

He had wept over the scene at Lazarus' Tomb.

There were similarities. 

This was not God's intent, not His design for man or for Jerusalem.

He could not force the people to wake up to the truth of the Kingdom. They refused to listen to His Love and change their ways.

-Joyce Rupp, Praying Our Goodbyes

Isaiah 5.1-7 Similar conditions from 700 years before

In Isaiah's time it was idolatry that drew them away from the LORD

When Jesus came it was their organized religion, ceremonies and desire to keep the temple that shut Jesus out. His cleansing of it was the last straw.

The Parable of the Tenants and  the Vineyard was against them (Mark 12.1-12)

This was His intent

Psalm 48.9 Within your temple, O God,

    we meditate on your unfailing love.

10 Like your name, O God,

    your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;

    your right hand is filled with righteousness.

11 Mount Zion rejoices,

    the villages of Judah are glad

    because of your judgments.

But they had made into a den of robbers and killed those sent to them.

3. He went to the end of that Road into the Eastern Gate.

A special gate... only one leading directly into the temple.

Directly across from the Garden of Gethsemane

At the base of the Mount of Olives

Ancient Prophesies in Psalms and Ezekiel

Psalm 24.7 Lift up your heads, you gates;

    be lifted up, you ancient doors,

    that the King of glory may come in.

8 Who is this King of glory?

    The LORD strong and mighty,

    the LORD mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, you gates;

    lift them up, you ancient doors,

    that the King of glory may come in.

10 Who is He, this King of glory?

    The LORD Almighty—

    He is the King of glory.

Ezekiel 40 describing the new temple

 Ezekiel 43.43 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with His glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

Ezekiel 44.2 The LORD said to me, "This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it.

The place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives:

1. Began what we call Holy Week

2. Shows us our LORD's heart for those who reject Him

3. Shows us our LORD's courage and love because He knew what was ahead

4.He will ride into again when He sits on the throne of His father David.

5. Reminds us of Jerusalem's past, present and future.

6. Points the Cross

7. Reminds of the New Jerusalem. He is coming again! The place where the the road Goes down the Mount of Olives is very close to the place where Jesus went up, when He ascended into heaven. When He comes back we are told by Zechariah the prophet that He will set foot on this mountain again.

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

-Zechariah 14.4

Pastor Erwin Lutzer of Moody Bible Church in Chicago writes:

The Mount of Olives has a remarkable history, but it will have an even more remarkable future. Jesus ascended into heaven from the top of this mountain, an event seen only by the disciples and perhaps a few bystanders. But when He returns to this mountain, “every eye shall see Him” and He will proceed to establish His kingdom.

And when this spectacular event takes place, we will be returning with Him from heaven to reign on Earth! If you are a believer and have never toured Israel, you can be encouraged, for you shall get the “grand tour” at the return of Jesus.

Today we commemorate His Triumphal Entry as we wait for His Return! 

His Coming Departure

His Coming Departure

Matthew 17.1-13

Luke 9.30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 

Departure= exodus

exit

the close of one's career, one's final fate

Traveling a road to the end

The Transfiguration of Jesus

This event took place on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, the country's high point at 9,232 feet.

The mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation in a very dry area of the world. The Jurassic limestone is broken by faults and solution channels to form a karst topography. Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls, which cover all three of its peaks for most of the year. Melted water from the snow-covered mountain's western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain, which form streams and rivers. These merge to become the Jordan River. Additionally, the runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine, oak, and poplar trees are abundant.

It is also known as the rooftop of Israel and the Eyes of the Nation.

Climbing high mountains:

1. They get us up and away from the busyness of the world below.

2.They give a fresh new perspective on life from the view up there.

3.Climbing is a struggle that results in fresh air, fewer insects, quiet, peace.

4.You get to see beauty only those who climb see. Animals, fruit, etc.

5.You join a small fraternity of people who have made the climb.

6.You get to come down and say, "I was up there!"

7.You have memories of the climb for years to come. (My Birthday- all my kids and grandkids).

Mt. Hermon 

It was a favorite place of David's.

He wrote in 

Psalm 42.6 My soul is downcast within me;

    therefore I will remember You

from the land of the Jordan,

    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

    in the roar of Your waterfalls;

all Your waves and breakers

    have swept over me.

So Luke tells us that Jesus was speaking to Moses and Elijah about His Coming Departure. 

Notice Luke tells us He was about to bring it about. There were numerous times in Jerusalem and once in Nazareth where they tried to kill Jesus. That wonderful verse in John 10.18 explains why they couldn't.

"No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded."

As we prepare for the beginning Holy Week next Sunday, think about this...

1.  The LORD was not the Victim But the Victor.

A victim is helpless.

He could have stopped the whole thing.

His Father's hand was in it all. Jesus brought it about (Luke 9.31).

Our Father in Heaven gave the disciples instructions to listen to His Son.

v.9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” He was speaking to them about Post Resurrection Matters.

But they were more concerned with the positions in the Kingdom at this point.

They forgot what He said. They had their own agendas.

Be careful. If it could happen to them, it can happen to us. I believe at times believers struggle because they are trying to push their own agendas. (Many things influence this within our sinful nature). Following Jesus means being surrendered to His Agenda for you.

Luke 9.51 As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 

His departure- His exit

To be taken up to heaven emphasizing the fact that in His death He was in control. He chose when He would die. It would be precise. It would fulfill ancient prophecies. He would die but He would conquer death. He would rise again.

Jesus was the Lamb Who was slain from the creation of the world. 

Revelation 13.8

Yet Jesus prayed for God's will in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Humanity in play but more than that He knew the cost. He understood the load He was about to bear, the cup He was about to drink.

When Peter tried to stop it...

Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? Matthew 26.53

So He was the Victor not only in His Resurrection but also in His death!

He walked into His death willingly, according to the plan of God, the prophecies of the Old Testament.

After He rose, on the Road to Emmaus

Luke 25.44 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."

He never spoke about His death without speaking about rising again.

In His Transfiguration He spoke of...

2. His Glorious Splendor

Before and After

Revelation 1.9-16

The Transformation showed Jesus in His glory. It is in detail in Revelation 1.

Notice  Moses and Elijah were in glorious splendor as we will be to:

The Crown, The Righteous Judge will give to all who have longed for His Appearing

He prayed about in John 17

13 “I am coming to You now,..."

24 “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.

His Departure was part of God's Plan and for our good

John 16.7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

God had a plan for the Son. He has plans for all His children. He gives us insight into our lives as we walk with Him.

Here we see that what seems like a bad thing- Jesus going away 

is actually for their good.

I wonder how many bad things happen and that is all we see. Here Jesus is telling us more. He is telling us the good.

Presently reading a book: Praying Our Good Byes

Good can come after loss and in sorrow. The LORD is near and He has a plan-

He always has a plan.

His Coming Departure put Him in His Present State

3. He Reigns From Heaven Above!

He is seated at the righthand of God, the Father, making intercession for us.

Romans 8.34

He is seated because His work in His Resurrected Body is done.

His work is being done on earth through the Body of Christ , the church.

He is coming back!

He will reign on the earth!

So the Transfiguration shows us Jesus in His majesty. How we will see Him when He comes again. Let us do His work while it is day!