The New Creation: Jesus' Resurrection and Our Hope

Good morning, everyone. Let's pray together, shall we? God, our Father, we rejoice to be your people by your grace and mercy. Lord, we have sung your praises, we have heard your word. We ask, Lord, that by your Spirit you will speak this morning into our minds, our hearts, our wills. Encourage the faint-hearted. Lord, encourage us more as we see the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Give us grace to respond to him with faithful hearts, living lives that bring glory to your name.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Amen. The digital age in which we live is one that has seen rapid and massive changes, hasn't it, to life and to the way we live. Back in the 1980s, those of you that can remember that particular decade, we thought we were high-tech. The 1980s was the high-tech decade.

We now had machines that could record TV programs on VHS. Youngsters had consoles that allowed them to play video games in their home. And then a Japanese company gave us an amazing new way to listen to music. It was called the compact disc. Wow. Little did we know what was coming, or little did most of us know what was coming, I guess. It wasn't until the late 1980s that the first Internet service provider companies, as they were called, were founded. And it was not long after that that they gave a gateway to those who were experimenting with something called electronic mail.

Over the next decade, this technology was rolled out, I guess initially in the business world, but by the end of the 90s, many of us had it in our homes. And since then, the technological innovations have just kept coming, haven't they? Things have changed and changed and changed again over the last two decades. The digital Internet age has changed life. It's changed the way we work, or many aspects of our work. It has changed the way we communicate with one another. It's changed the way we get our information and even our entertainment. What did teenagers do in church before the smartphone?

But rapid, dramatic, and significant, though those changes have been, they pale into utter insignificance when compared with the event that we're considering this morning. And I mean, of course, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In our Sunday morning journey through Luke's gospel, we've been going through Luke's gospel for some time now, and we've finally arrived this morning at the last chapter. Luke chapter 24 has basically three stories, three episodes, that are all presented as happening in one day. And this morning, we consider just the first of those, those verses that Laurie read to us. So, if you haven't already done so, do have a Bible open with me, please, at Luke chapter 24, and you heard the first 12 verses read.

A reminder, that was page 1061 in the church Bibles. If you were here last week, you'll recall that Mark focused on the burial of Jesus, which is not something that we think that much about, I guess, is it, in some respects. And we met a man called Joseph of Arimathea, you might recall, who rather hastily arranged for the body of Jesus to be given a decent burial before the onset of the Sabbath. The Jewish day began at 6 p. m., and he made arrangements for Jesus' body to be interred. In those days, or in Jewish culture, bodies were buried, of course, not downwards, not six foot under, as we would say, but kind of sideways, really, in tombs cut out of the rock. And often these tombs would have been large enough for a number of your family, so you could reopen it when people died and place the body in that tomb. This, it seems, was a new tomb that Joseph had either had cut out of the rock, or perhaps he'd purchased it. And the body of Jesus was laid there.

And we heard last week how a group of women followed, they saw where the body had been buried, and they go back into the city, and they prepared various spices and perfume. Large enough for a number of your family so you could reopen it when people died and place the body in that tomb. This it seems was a new tomb that Joseph had either had cut out of the rock or perhaps he'd purchased it. And the body of Jesus was laid there. And we heard last week how a group of women followed, they saw where the body had been buried and they go back into the city and they prepared various spices and perfumes that traditionally would have been applied to a dead body as a way of adorning, a mark of respect and so on. And now we read at the beginning of chapter 24, now at the first light of dawn on what we would call Sunday, these women return with these spices and perfumes and so on for this mark of respect. Not sure what their plan was to be honest, to move the stone. Maybe they thought there was enough of them that they could move the stone, I don't know, but as it turns out they didn't need to.

When they arrive they find that the stone has been rolled away. And then they hear someone speak and they look round and we're told that they see two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning. Now later in the chapter, later in chapter 24, it'll be made clear to us that these men were angels.

We don't talk a lot about angels, do we really? But it's interesting that angels often play a prominent part at key moments in the Bible.

They're not there all the time but often key turning points in the Bible. So for example, angels crop up rather a lot, don't they, in what we call the Christmas story, which we'll hear again in just a few weeks' time, as the Son of God took on himself human flesh and entered into the world.

Well now, as the earthly ministry of Jesus comes to an end, angels are playing their part again. And we heard that they declared to the women that Jesus has risen. And he's risen just as he said he would. Now we'll come back to that as we go along.

The women return to the city, they find the disciples, I don't know, they were hiding somewhere or whatever, and they tell the disciples what they saw and what they heard. And we read in verse 11, but the disciples didn't believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. The ESV Bible, which is the one I tend to read at home, says that the men thought it was an idle tale. I think on this occasion I prefer the NIV version, to be honest. So just to be clear then, according to verse 11, here we have a group of men thinking that a group of women are talking nonsense.

There's got to be a joke there somewhere, isn't there? But we won't go there, or I won't go there this morning.

And in any case, what did these men know? The women knew the truth, didn't they? And Peter, we're told, gets up and he runs to the tomb. And of course he sees for himself that it's empty. And the passage ended, Peter returning back into the city, wondering to himself what had happened. The ESV said that he marvelled at what had happened, which I think is a bit more ambiguous and perhaps deliberately so. What is Peter thinking at this point? What did Peter make of this event?

Maybe he wasn't sure. So what do we make of this event?

More importantly perhaps, what does this passage of God's Word invite us to make of this event? Well, let me suggest three things to you this morning.

Firstly, I think we're meant to see that this was a real event. This is not a work of imagination that we're reading here in Luke 24. It wasn't wishful thinking on the part of the disciples. In fact, if you read the Gospels, it's clear that the disciples weren't wishfully thinking anything. After the death of Jesus, they were discouraged, they were confused, they were fearful. All their hopes of who Jesus might have been and the difference that Jesus might make seemed to have disappeared. Now that he's been crucified and is dead.

Nor is this just a hallucination. The women saw the empty tomb and they heard the voice of an angel. Peter, we're told, saw the empty tomb when he ran to it. And notice that he also, verse 12, saw the grave clothes or the strips of linen, as the NIV puts it, lying by themselves. These bodies would have been wrapped in yards and yards of linen strips. And yet here they are mysteriously laying there. Which would presumably rule out any thought of grave robbers, if there were such a thing in those days, or of somebody moving the body hastily. Because if you wanted to quickly get rid of the body, would you really take time to unravel yards and yards and yards of linen?

The next few hours, the next few days, the next few weeks. Not just these women and not just Peter, but the disciples as a larger group, saw Jesus himself. They touched him, they talked with him, they had a meal with him. We might say an empty tomb doesn't prove anything. The next few hours, the next few days, the next few weeks, not just these women and not just Peter, but the disciples as a larger group saw Jesus himself.

They touched him. They talked with him. They had a meal with him. We might say an empty tomb doesn't prove anything. But in a matter of just a few weeks, these disciples who had appeared so discouraged, so confused, so lost, these disciples were proclaiming, not a hundred miles away, not out in the desert, proclaiming right there in Jerusalem, out in the streets, proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, which would appear to rule out any thought that maybe the authorities had moved the body for some reason, whether Roman or Jewish.

Had they done so, they could very easily have disproved what the disciples were saying. But not only did those disciples begin proclaiming publicly, out on the streets in Jerusalem, that Jesus had risen from the dead, they were prepared to suffer for doing so, for proclaiming that message.

The very first case of what we might call persecution in Acts chapters 3 and 4, you may know the story, Peter and John go up to the temple as the disciples did, at least initially, they were Jews, but now they were followers of Jesus, but they got to the temple. You perhaps know the story, a man gets miraculously healed. Not surprisingly, it draws a crowd. Peter and John take the opportunity to preach the gospel and they are arrested. But Luke makes it clear, they're not arrested for gathering a crowd.

They're certainly not arrested for the miraculous healing of a man. They were arrested for proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. On that occasion, they spend one night in prison and they're threatened the next morning before being released. But of course, in the weeks, the months, the years that followed, much worse would happen.

These men were prepared to suffer and even to die for proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, which would appear to rule out any thought that the disciples had just perpetrated this hoax for some reason. In other words, as we listen to this story and as we think about what happened then and what happened in the days and weeks that followed, it points us, doesn't it, to taking this at face value. That what we are reading here is a real event. In other words, if you and I could somehow be there that day, we would have seen an empty tomb. The stone rolled away. If we peered inside, we would have seen grave clothes. Linen left in the tomb. This was a real event.

But then secondly, this was a necessary event. Let's look again at what the angel said to the women in verse 5 and 6. The women are terrified, as you would be if you saw an angel. And the angels say to the women, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He's not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again. What's the most important word in that sentence?

In the things that the angel said. I think it's the word must. The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again. Jesus had sounded that note when he had told the disciples, going back in Luke chapter 9, at that sort of turning point in his ministry when the disciples are prepared to say, Yeah, we think you're the Messiah. And Jesus begins to teach them what that will mean for him. And we read in Luke chapter 9, verse 22, he says to them, The Son of Man must, same word, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. Jesus sounds the same note in the passage that I guess we'll probably look at next week. So chapter 24 and verse 26.

This is when Jesus later in the day, he appears to a couple of the disciples. He'd gone for a walk in the country. They don't recognise who he is. He chides them for being slow to see what has happened. And he says to them in verse 26, Did not the Messiah have to suffer? Now, it doesn't look it there, but it's the same word in the original.

Must. It was necessary. It had to happen. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And when the disciples began preaching the gospel, they had that same sense. They sounded that same note that this was something that had to happen. So in the very first sermon recorded, Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, just weeks after this event, Peter on the streets of Jerusalem.

Must, it was necessary, it had to happen. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And when the disciples began preaching the Gospel, they had that same sense, they sounded that same note that this was something that had to happen. So in the very first sermon recorded, Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, just weeks after this event, Peter on the streets of Jerusalem speaking to thousands of Jews, many of them who lived in Jerusalem, many more who had come from all over the place really for the Jewish festival.

And Peter stands up and he says to them, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held.

Or just one more example, fast forward a couple of decades. The Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey arrives in Thessalonica and as was his custom he goes first to the synagogue, he finds the Jews and we read in Acts chapter 17 that on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, which for us would be the Old Testament, explaining and proving that it was necessary. Same word, must. That it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying to them, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. He must be crucified, he must be raised. Why? Well because this was God's plan for our salvation.

It was God's plan, announced, previewed, signposted in the Old Testament scriptures that Jesus would die for our sins in our place to satisfy the righteousness of God. But the deliberate plan of God that led to the death of Jesus was also the cause and explanation of the resurrection of Jesus.

For the fact that he has fully accomplished all that God sent him to do, the fact that he has fully paid for our sins, meant that he must be raised. The victor over sin and death. The resurrection, if you like, is the validation of Jesus as the conquering son of God. Hence Paul could write in his letter to the Romans that Jesus our Lord was delivered up, that means handed over to be crucified, that he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. The resurrection of Jesus then was a real event, real physical event in space and time. And it was a necessary event. But there's a third thing, and a third thing that I think is implied in this passage.

And in fact arguably it's the most important of all in terms of you and I thinking about life and how we live life now and who we live life for now. The resurrection of Jesus then was not just a real event, not even just a necessary event, but it was also a new event. Now what do I mean by that?

I wonder how many of you here have seen the Disney film Aladdin from the 1990s. Famous film, animated film, it was very popular, very successful. Towards the end of that film Aladdin sings, because it's a musical obviously, he sings to Jasmine the song A Whole New World. Remember that? It was kind of like the theme song really for the film. And it comes at a point where, and Jasmine has been confined to the Sultan's palace for years, and Aladdin shows her a new life of freedom. Hence a whole new world, he sings. Well, a whole new world literally came into being on that first Easter day.

On that first Christian day, as we might put it. The resurrection of Jesus was a new beginning. It was a new creation. You see, and we must never make this mistake, the resurrection of Jesus was not just Jesus coming back to life. If you look at the four Gospels, between them they record three occasions during his earthly ministry when Jesus raised someone from the dead. There was the son of the widow of Nain, there was the daughter of Jairus, and perhaps the best known one, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. But the resurrection of Jesus was something altogether different.

Those three people were brought back. record three occasions during his earthly ministry when Jesus raised someone from the dead. There was the son of the widow of Nain, there was the daughter of Jairus, and perhaps the best known one, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. But the resurrection of Jesus was something altogether different.

Those three people were brought back to life. Jesus, in his humanity, entered new life. Those three people would have died again physically. You might think it's a bit unfortunate dying twice in one lifetime. But Jesus was raised never to die again.

The resurrection of Jesus is the age to come breaking into this present age. In the resurrection of Jesus, we get a glimpse of eternity, of eternal life. And I think that that's what's being hinted at at the very beginning of this passage. On the first day of the week, We might think, well, what's so special about that? It was the first day of the week. Sunday, as we would now call it. It's interesting, if you look at the four Gospels, and they all tell different parts of the resurrection story, some people try and sort of piece the evidence together to come up with a nice chronology of what happened that day. But it's interesting that all the Gospels emphasise this, that it was the first day of the week.

And we need to remind ourselves that for the Jews, for the people of Israel, the seven-day week was not just a convenient way of dividing up the calendar, so that you have a nice square monthly calendar on your wall in the kitchen to mark off your appointments. For the Jews, the seven-day week had far, far greater significance than that. It said to them something about God. In the book of Genesis, the revelation that was given to Moses depicts God creating in six days, and then resting on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath. The word Sabbath means rest. Not that God needed to rest the way you and I need to rest. In fact, the way I often need to rest. But it was a symbol, if you like, of what is the ultimate purpose of creation, to rest in the eternal presence of God.

And of course, once God gave Israel the law, this whole principle was enshrined in the warp and woof of the way they lived their lives. They were to remember these things. So when the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and we read it in the book of Exodus, and then if you go into the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses reminds them of all that has happened, we see that there were two things in particular that they were to remember on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was to remind them of creation, and the Sabbath was to remind them of redemption. It reminded them that God is the one who has created all things, and it reminded them that God had redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt. Jesus was crucified on the sixth day, the final day of work. For his work of redemption was complete. It was finished. It is finished, Jesus said, didn't he, as he hung on the cross. And then after the old day of rest, after the old covenant day of rest, there now dawns a new day, the first day. Here is something new.

Here is the beginning of the ages to come. Here is new creation. Here is new life. Which is perhaps why, almost from the beginning of its existence, the New Testament church was in the habit of meeting together on the first day, which they began to call the Lord's Day, rather than on the last day. In other words, it's why we're here today, and we didn't turn up yesterday. Jesus is the new creation. Jesus shows us eternity breaking into this age, but we don't yet see it, do we, in all its fullness. The new creation has not yet been fully revealed.

It's not been fully consummated. That will only happen the day Jesus Christ returns. We look forward to that day. Nonetheless, we do experience the beginnings of that. We do have something of a foretaste of that, of that new life, when we are united to Christ by faith. The Apostle Peter, the beginning of his first letter, a letter which has a lot to say about the trials and tribulations and sufferings of life that his readers are going through, Peter begins that letter by saying, Praise be to God, bless the name of God, for he has caused us to be born again. In other words, we have been recreated. When we are united to Christ by faith.

The Apostle Peter, the beginning of his first letter, a letter which has a lot to say about the trials and tribulations and sufferings of life that his readers are going through, Peter begins that letter by saying, Praise be to God, bless the name of God, for he has caused us to be born again. In other words, we have been recreated into a living hope. How? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, says Peter. And he goes on to say, Therefore, we have an inheritance in heaven that can never be lost, can never be spoiled, will never fade. The resurrection of Jesus Christ then was, yes, was a real event. It really physically happened. It was a necessary event because it was part of God's plan and purpose for our salvation.

But it was also a new event, the beginnings of the new age, a new creation. As Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, which is Paul's little phrase that means if anyone is united to Christ by faith, if anyone is in Christ, writes Paul, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this, writes Paul, is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. Which is why a couple of verses later, he makes the appeal to his readers. Therefore, if you haven't already, therefore, be reconciled to God. Do you know the reality of that?

Do you know the truth of new life in Jesus Christ? The Christ who died for our sins and on that first day, on that new day, was raised to life that we might have eternal life. That's the promise. That's the assurance that we have in Jesus Christ, our glorious and risen Lord and Savior. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for Jesus. Thank you for the gospel. We know it was your plan for the salvation of all who will believe.

This morning we simply say thank you. Thank you that Jesus died for our sins. Thank you that he rose for our justification before you. Thank you that he is the first fruits, the first born of the dead as it were, that in him we see life, eternal life. And in him, and in him only, we will know eternal life ourselves. We thank you, we praise you Lord, in the name of our risen Savior Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Well we're going to stand and sing our closing hymn, very appropriate one. Some of us know it as thine be the glory, but I think the praise book has glory to Jesus.

Same hymn, same tune. Let's stand to sing. Glory to Jesus, risen from great slum, endless is the victory of the death he won. Angels from his splendour roll the stone away, and the cold with great loss lay on all he lay. Glory to Jesus, risen from great slum, endless is the victory of the death he won. See Jesus leads us, risen from the tomb, loving he leads us, scatters fear and gloom. Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing, for the Lord is living, death and sorrows he sings. Glory to Jesus, risen from great slum, endless is the victory of the death he won.

So now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, may he equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.