Scroll Down for Lesson Archives

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Day Before Easter

What we celebrate today is the central, defining event The Day Before Easter
of the Christian faith. On this day, for the last twenty centuries, Christians have gathered together all over the world to celebrate that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. This simple statement of faith is the key distinction between Christianity and every other religion or philosophy known to man. It sets us apart. Every man or woman in history who claimed to have discovered the meaning of life, who claimed to know the way to God -- every one of them is still dead. But Jesus Christ lives.

This fact not only makes Christianity unique. It also makes it good news. But to call the gospel of Jesus Christ "good news" is to be guilty of a gross understatement. It’s not just "good" news. It’s great news. It’s fantastic news. It’s unbelievable news; wonderful, amazing, incredible news! We are going to look at why Resurrection Sunday is such great news, why it’s more to us than just an interesting historical event. We’re going to see how something which happened two thousand years ago can still have meaning and significance for us today. But first, we’re going to talk about a different day. Holy Saturday, the day between the death of Christ on Good Friday and the discovery of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. Because the good news of Christ’s resurrection life can only be appreciated against the bad news of his death.

Consider how the disciples must have felt as the sun came up on that cold, gray Saturday morning. Just the day before, they had witnessed the brutal execution of their leader; they had watched him suffer as his life slowly drained away. His wasn’t a calm, peaceful passing. And it wasn’t a noble, heroic death. It was the agonizing, shameful, humiliating death of a condemned criminal, nailed to a wooden cross between two real criminals. They listened as Jesus took his final, tortured breaths; they saw the Roman soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side to make sure he was dead; they watched as his lifeless corpse was pulled down and dragged away to be placed in the tomb.

How must they have felt? Grief-stricken. Heartbroken. Shocked. Horrified. Traumatized. As any of us would be, seeing someone we love treated this way. But most of all, confused. Only a week before, they were walking proudly at Jesus’ side as he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, surrounded by adoring crowds. Crowds shouting, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" They were all convinced that he was the Messiah, the one who would save his people. He was going to re-establish Israel as an independent nation, he was going to give them, his disciples, positions of honor and authority in his new kingdom. But then everything came crashing down around them. Jesus was arrested, and brought before Pilate, and the crowds suddenly changed their tune. "Crucify Him!" they shouted, "We have no king but Caesar!". And now this. A dead teacher. A lifeless savior.

"How could it end this way?", they must have thought. Everything Jesus taught had seemed so right, so true. Was it all a lie? If so, then how could they have been so mistaken, so deceived? How could they have ever thought that this uneducated carpenter was right, and all of the religious authorities were wrong? What fools they had been! But then again -- didn’t Jesus perform miracles? -- heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, cast out demons? Could a man who did those things really be a liar and a fraud? Or perhaps they had been following a madman, a lunatic who thought he was God’s Son, but who was really just an ordinary man. Was that it? Or was he just tragically misguided? A sincere man who got carried away, who started to believe the things that people were saying about him, and who didn’t realize where it was all leading until it was too late? Who was Jesus, anyway? They thought they knew him, but now their whole world had been turned upside down, and they weren’t sure of anything. They couldn’t reconcile what had just happened with what they thought they knew about Jesus. Surely, the Son of God couldn’t die, could he?

Yes, try to imagine how confused and distraught they must have felt. Now, let’s ask ourselves a question: We’ve felt this way too, haven’t we? You thought you understood what was involved in following Christ. You thought you knew what was supposed to happen. You had hopes, plans, expectations. And then something came out of left field and knocked you right off your feet. You never saw it coming. And not only that, you never imagined that it could come. "What’s going on!" you cried out, in pain and confusion. "This isn’t supposed to happen! This isn’t supposed to be part of the Christian life! I never expected cancer. I never expected failure. I never expected my wife to have an affair. I never expected to lose my job. I never expected my child to die. Something is terribly wrong. I thought I knew who Jesus was, but the Jesus I was following would never allow this." Have you ever felt that way? If so, you’re in good company. Because those are exactly the kind of thoughts that were going through the minds of the disciples on that Saturday morning. It seemed that God had abandoned them, and they didn’t know what to do, where to turn.

Consider also what this meant to the disciples from a spiritual point of view. By all appearances, it meant that the Pharisees had been right all along. It meant that when the Pharisees attacked Jesus, and warned people not to listen to him, and cast out of the synagogue anyone who admitted to being one of his followers, they were actually doing God’s work! It meant that the disciples, in following Jesus, had been rebelling against God! And that was the worst possible news. Because the God of the Pharisees wasn’t a God of love. The God of the Pharisees was a severe, unforgiving taskmaster who accepted nothing less than perfect obedience to every one of his laws. And although the Pharisees self-righteously claimed to keep those laws, the followers of Christ knew it was impossible. They understood that no one could ever satisfy such a God. And so with Jesus dead, they saw no hope of salvation. If Jesus was wrong, then the God that Jesus was teaching about, the God of love and forgiveness, the God who welcomed all who came to Him in faith and repentance, that God was just a fiction. And the real God was the God of the Pharisees, a God of wrath and judgement, a God who demands, and condemns and punishes. Can you imagine how the disciples must have felt, as they thought about the implications of Christ’s death? They must have been overwhelmed with despair and hopelessness, as in their minds they heard the doors of heaven clang shut forever.

But then something happened that changed everything, for them and for us. “He is risen from the dead! [Luke 24:6]

Hallelujah! As it turns out, Jesus was not a madman, or a con man, or a fool. He was, and is, the risen Lord, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And the God he revealed to us, the God of love, and grace, and mercy, the God who welcomes all who come to him through faith in Christ -- that God is real. The gates of heaven are not closed to us; they are open wide. And Jesus is standing at the threshold, inviting us in. What a relief! What a joy! What a hope! What a Savior!

Now let’s consider why the resurrection is such great news for the Christian. First of all, it means that Death is not the end. The grave is not our final destination. By dying and then rising again, Jesus Christ has vanquished death once and for all, so that death no longer has the final word. For us, it’s only a doorway to eternal life.

"He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News”. 2 Timothy 1:10b

And because we have accepted Christ as our Savior, “…..we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him”. Romans 6:8-9

But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.1 Cor. 15:57

Because of what Christ did, we as Believers are immortal. Do you understand that? Do you believe that? Through faith in Christ, we possess what mankind has been searching for since the dawn of time -- the fountain of youth, the secret of everlasting life. We have found it! We will never die. We cannot be killed. We are going to live forever. Our lives have a beginning, but will never have an ending. When the stars have all burned out, we will still be alive, worshiping and serving God. We are immortal. [When we’ve been there 10,000 years / Bright shining as the sun / We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise / Than when we’d first begun].

And this knowledge that death is not the end gives us courage. We can stand firm in our faith; we can do the right thing no matter what the cost; we can suffer any loss or hardship without regret. Why? Because the worst possible thing that can happen to us, death, has been rendered powerless. It no longer has the ability to do us any permanent harm.

The resurrection gives us courage, because we know that no one can take from us the thing that we treasure most -- our life. Disease, or old age, or an accident, or even a murder, may kill the body. But because of the resurrection, we know that life doesn’t end at death. And so we don’t need to be afraid.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that things are often very different from how they appear. As Christians, we walk by faith, rather than by sight. And not everything that looks like a loss, or a failure, or a defeat really is one. Remember that during the time Jesus was in the grave, it seemed that the forces of evil had won. They had destroyed the Son of God! Death was victorious! And yet, as Jesus told his disciples on the road to Emmaus,

“You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:25-27

In other words, the death of Christ, the most terrible crime in human history, was a part of God’s plan. Did the disciples understand that? No. Not at all. Remember, how did they react when the women told them about seeing the angels at the tomb, angels who gave them the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead? Luke 24:11 reads, "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense". It wasn’t until later, when Christ appeared to them himself, that they finally realized what had happened. [Luke 24:36-45]

You know, we don’t understand what God is doing, either. It may be there on the pages of Scripture for us to read, but we too are often surprised when God does what he says He will do. Does the Bible warn us to expect trials and suffering in this world? Yes. But when it comes, we react as if something has gone terribly wrong. We can’t reconcile our little picture of God with what is happening in our lives. And so it seems that God has abandoned us, as if He is no longer in control. But that isn’t true. Even when things seem darkest, when it seems that God is far away, when it seems that evil is winning, God is at work. He’s at work in our life. And he is working to accomplish his good, and loving, and wise purposes, even when it seems he is nowhere to be found. He hasn’t been defeated. He hasn’t abandoned us. He is here right beside us, just like he’s always been.

HE BEGAN TO WEEP!

HE BEGAN TO WEEP!

Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’” (Luke 19:28b-31)

The 2 disciples must have wondered about what Jesus told them to do, because none of the Gospel accounts about the ministry of Christ ever mention Him riding any animal to get from one place to another. He must have walked hundreds of miles in the area but there is no mention of Him ever riding, except in a boat across the Sea of Galilee.

But now, He gives this unusual command to go into the village to get a donkey colt that had never been ridden, & to bring it to Him. It must have seemed a strange command, indeed.

He even tells them the exact words they are to use should anyone question them. They are to say, "The Lord needs it." Was this prearranged? Did the owners know what Jesus was going to do? We don’t know.

It is obvious, though, that Jesus knew what He was going to face in the city of Jerusalem. So His decision to go into Jerusalem must have been one of the most difficult Jesus ever made.

And on top of that, to ride into the city on a colt, rather than to walk into it as He had often done before, must have been an even more difficult decision, because riding a colt into the city was a public declaration that He was a King.

In times of war the conqueror would ride upon a prancing stallion. But in times of peace, the king would ride a colt to symbolize that peace prevailed. So, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem upon a colt is to declare that He is a King.

How would the people respond to that? Would they recognize that His Kingdom was not of this world - that it was a spiritual kingdom, & He was to be a spiritual King? Small chance, because He had been teaching them that for 3 1/2 years, & still they had not learned that lesson.

Perhaps some of them would greet Him with laughter. Maybe they would be amused by what Jesus was doing. After all, it was a rather ridiculous picture. Here is a carpenter declaring Himself to be a King!

Perhaps some would think, "He is a lunatic, living in a world of fantasy - imagining Himself to be a King!" And they would laugh at him.

Others would greet Him with anger - upset because they would interpret His riding into the city as arrogance & blasphemy against God.

Of course, many would hail Him with joy, welcoming Him as an earthly King, come to reestablish the throne of David, & overthrow the Roman Empire. They were ready & eager to place a crown upon His head.

Among the crowds would be people He had healed. Some had been among the thousands He had fed. Many more had seen some of His miracles, & listened as "He spoke with authority." They had listened, & their lives had been changed.

Jesus knew all of this. He knew that just over the horizon was the cross, looming like a monster ready to consume Him. But Luke tells us that in spite of it all, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." Luke 9:51

As Jesus rides down toward the gate of the city, the crowds are growing, & there is a festive air, for it is Passover & people are gathering from far & near for this greatest of all Jewish holidays.

Even before Jesus arrives, the news has spread that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. You can imagine the excitement that prevails.

"Have you heard the news? Lazarus died, & was buried in a tomb so long that his body was starting to decay. But this teacher from Nazareth called, `Lazarus, come forth’ & Lazarus came forth. I saw him! They stripped away the grave clothing, & he actually walked & breathed & lived again! Surely only the Messiah - only the Son of God could do that!"

The news travels from one person to another, until finally when Jesus was ready to enter the city, great crowds had collected on both sides of the road. They were there! They had cut palm branches & were shouting, "Hosanna…”, (A Hebrew expression meaning “Save!” Which later would become an exclamation of praise!) (Matthew 21:9 NIV) Excitement prevailed throughout the whole city!

Then Jesus looked over His waiting audience. He must have seen the mixture of expressions on their faces.

There were those who loved Him: Perhaps Bartimaeus was there, a man who had received his sight, no longer in his beggar’s rags. How about Zacchaeus? He had paid back his debt to society, & had made his peace with God. And the lepers? Their skin had been cleansed & now they were rejoicing for the healing that the Lord had given them.

Lazarus & Mary & Martha & Mary Magdalene – maybe they were all there! Their lives reflected the love that was in their hearts for this man who had taught them, & molded them & changed them.

There were also sinister faces there. Faces with squinty eyes, waiting for Him to say one wrong word - to make one mistake.

The church folks, the Sadducees & Pharisees were there. They were supposed to be keepers of the law, the spiritual leaders. But Jesus had gained so much popularity that they felt threatened. So, full of jealousy, they watched Him.

The Romans were there, fearing revolt & watching for any sign of rebellion against Rome. They were ready & waiting to crush any uprising.

Jesus realized, as He listened to their "Hosannas," that soon the sinister voices would drown out the voices of love - that those crying for Him to be King would soon be crying, "Crucify Him!" or simply standing aside, saying nothing at all.

Did you ever wonder how the apostles were reacting to all of this? Maybe Judas was ecstatic - basking in the reflected glory - because Judas may have wanted an earthly Kingdom more than any of the others.

Can’t you just see Peter walking with chest expanded -enjoying the throngs & the cheers of the crowd - maybe with one hand on his sword just in case something went wrong - thinking to himself, "Maybe it was worth it to leave the fishnets & boats. Maybe at last we are going to get what we deserve."

Possibly there was Thomas, a bit skeptical about everything that was going on - wondering what is going to happen next. After all, he is “doubting” Thomas.

What about James & John? Do you suppose they were thinking about Jesus being crowned King - so that they could be on His right & left hand in positions of authority & power?

They were all there in Jerusalem - loving faces - sinister faces - anxious apostles. Crowds trampling almost one upon another - when suddenly - the whole procession stopped.

Maybe it was a little like rush hour traffic interstate? One car stops, then all the other cars stop, like a chain reaction. Can’t you just hear the people way back in the crowd that day saying, "What’s the holdup? What is going on? Why don’t you guys move on?"

But the people who were closest to Jesus could see - & they realized that it was He who had stopped the parade. Then they saw His body begin to shake. Maybe at first they thought He was laughing. Laughter would seem to be natural - for everybody else was laughing, & joy prevailed.

But then they saw His face, & they saw no evidence of laughter. Rather, they saw sorrow & tears. He was not laughing. The Bible says in Luke 19:41 that “he began to weep”.

The Scripture tells us that Jesus reacted emotionally many times from different scenes that He saw. When He saw the poor. When He saw the hungry. When He saw people sinning. When He saw the ill. The Scriptures say repeatedly that "...He had compassion on them."

But it only tells us of two times that Jesus cried. One time He cried at the grave of Lazarus. You remember, Mary & Martha were both weeping, & it says that Jesus wept with them. He wept for them. He entered into their grief with compassion & He identified with their sorrow & despair.

Why was Jesus crying. He looked at the city of Jerusalem. He saw the mixture of faces & the masses of humanity crowding there - & He realized the emptiness of their lives. They had not heard the message of peace. They did not understand the purpose of His coming.

Listen as I read Luke 19:41-44. "As He approached Jerusalem & saw the city, He wept over it & said, `If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you & encircle you & hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you & the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.’"

They had eyes, but they didn’t see. They had ears, but they didn’t hear. They missed the whole point of the message that God had given to them.

The fact they waved palm branches showed that they didn’t understand, because that is exactly what they did when the a group of Jewish militants overthrew the Syrian oppressors & reestablished worship in the temple before Jesus’ time.

By waving palm branches they were showing that they expected Jesus to be another warlord - another general of the armies – a king who would lead them to overthrow the Romans. They were saying that they were ready to pick up their swords & shields & go to war if He would lead them!

Jesus said, "I didn’t come for that purpose. I came to show you a more excellent way. I came to show you the way of love. "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:34-35) I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. (Matthew 5:44)
Those people who listened to Him must have thought, "Well, those are beautiful words, but surely He doesn’t mean Rome? He doesn’t expect us to love Rome? Only a lunatic would command you to love Rome. We can’t love Rome!"

But don’t you see - that was exactly what He was saying? "Love even Rome - because Rome with her mighty army has seen the power of the sword. But Rome has not seen the power of love. Show them love!"

The nation of Israel had the opportunity to show Rome something new & different. But because they didn’t understand Jesus - because they completely misunderstood His mission - Jesus wept over them because the opportunity would be taken away & they would never have it again.

These were God’s people - God’s chosen people. God had loved them & led them across the wilderness & into the Promised Land. But they did not understand the Messiah when He walked in their midst. Because of that, Jesus wept.

He sees the towering Temple of God silhouetted against the sky. But beyond that - in the years immediately ahead - He sees the armies of Titus surrounding the Holy City. He sees Temple stones being taken down & the whole city leveled.

All of that because they didn’t recognize the Messiah when He came! How different their lives could have been. How different the history of Israel could have been if they had only recognized the one who came into their midst, riding on a colt.

It is Matthew who adds that as Jesus looked at the city He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” Matthew 23:37

Today, just like the city of Jerusalem, we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus. What He finds when He looks into our faces?

Does He see people concerned about so many things - worried about income taxes - worried about job security - worried about their health, or lack of it? Does He see people who are so busy doing things here & there - so busy that they never bother to consider those things that are eternally important?

Does he see people who recognize Him for who He is? The Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God?

When He turns & looks into our lives, do you wonder, will He weep once again because of what He sees? Or will we have the joy that passes all understanding as we respond to His outstretched arms & hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant! ………Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:23 NIV

Lesson Archive

Hit Counter