Jesus is Alive! Believe!
Jesus is risen … … What goes through your mind? Every year on Easter Sunday we greet each other with the words, “He is risen!” And that’s wonderful, because Jesus our Lord is risen indeed. Our Lord is alive. If we truly believe that he is alive, how does this make us feel, think, and live? This morning I invite you to go on a journey with me to explore the experiences which the first believers had when they encountered the risen Jesus. Imagine you are there. Place yourself in their shoes.
1. A Roller Coaster Ride of Emotions
Sunday morning, the third day after Jesus’ death. Imagine the emotions and thoughts the followers of Jesus must have had during those three days. Trying to cope, trying to come to terms with all that happen and that their Lord, their beloved teacher is dead and gone, and with him their hope that he was the Messiah who would save Israel and restore God’s kingdom. They were sad, heartbroken, despondent, depressed, disappointed, grieving, crying. They were fearful. “What is going to happen now? Are the Jewish leaders going to come after us? What should we do?”
After the Sabbath, at dawn of the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. They were wondering about this.
Then they saw the angels in clothes that gleamed like lightning. They were alarmed. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.”
Trembling and bewildered the women hurried away, fled from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Then there is Mary Magdalene. When she saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Peter went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus met the two disciples traveling to Emmaus. They told Jesus what happened. “And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.
While they were still talking about this, on the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus himself came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
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.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
After Jesus ascended to heaven, they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
2. What Do We Feel?
How do we respond to the fact that Jesus Christ is alive? What do we feel? Bewildered, confused, troubled, wondering? That’s okay. We are dealing here with supernatural things, with God’s mystery and God’s actions. But don’t let this stop you from believing. Turn your bewilderment and confusion into wonder and seek to know Jesus. Believe that Jesus is alive and Lord.
Do you doubt like Thomas? You must first see before you believe. Are you a rationalist sceptic? You will believe only if Jesus’ resurrection can be explained rationally and scientifically. Where is your unbelief coming from? What is causing it? What is preventing you from believing?
God is God and as the all-powerful God he acted with supernatural power to raise Jesus from the dead. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” Believe that Jesus is alive and Lord.
We see that the disciples had a hard time understanding what has happened, and that Jesus had to open their minds to understand the Scriptures. Do you understand what has happened, why it has happened? Can you explain it to others? Can you share the good news of Jesus Christ the Lord who lives and saves? Believe, study the Scriptures and Jesus will open your heart and mind.
They were trembling, afraid, frightened, alarmed, startled. The fact that our Lord is alive should make us fear and tremble. Jesus’ death confirms the seriousness and reality of God’s judgment and wrath on sin. But what glorious grace and news. God gave himself to save us. Believe in the Name of Jesus. Believe that Jesus died. We are saved. Amazing grace! Believe and fear God.
We should fear God because of his tremendous power. This power resurrected Jesus. That’s awesome power. If that does not cause you to fear and tremble then I don’t know what will. It’s the same power that created the universe. And this same power transforms us, gives us new eternal life, empowers us to live as God’s people for God’s glory.
Amazing love, amazing grace that enables us to have and live in this intimate relationship with the awesome, all-powerful, holy God. We can know him as Father because Jesus lives. Jesus lives in us We can talk with him, walk with him, live every moment with him. Jesus is my Best Friend Forever—John 15. But he is not my buddy, my chum. He is my living Lord, my King, my God.
And this should cause us to fall down, to worship God, to give thanks and to praise God with great joy. Are we filled with joy that our Lord is alive? Are our hearts burning with joy and excitement to know the living Jesus? Are we running to the world to tell them that Jesus lives? We experience this joy in different ways. Some of us may be bursting with joy and want to shout it out. Others may have this quiet, peaceful joy inside of them. If there is not some kind of joy, then we must examine our hearts seriously. Why not? What is preventing us from experiencing this inexpressible and glorious joy? We believe and know that Jesus lives. We love Jesus. We are filled with joy.
I want to shout out to the world aloud, “Jesus is alive! My Lord lives!” I don’t care what the world thinks. Our Lord lives and we live because of him. Believe! Go and live every moment with the living Lord.