Sermons
from Lone Rock Bible Church Natural Easter (Part 1) So often, what comes naturally to God is supernatural to us and leaves us scratching our heads. Actually, Easter should be one of those times. According to the apostle Peter’s great sermon at Pentecost, the events of Calvary and the empty tomb show us the following:
We all ought to be impressed with the arctic tern. It’s a little two-pound bird. It spends most of its life in the air or on the water. That little rascal flies from North Pole to South Pole and back! The tern does this without a map, without any GPS or navigational aids. Does that impress anyone but me? I would think that one polar icecap would look the same as any other and yet it makes his way north to south, south to north annually. I saw a thing the other night about an anaconda, which I’m told is the most powerful of all the constrictors. They have this amazing ability of opening their mouth really wide because their jaw can unhinge. The narrator of this documentary was pointing out that there is an amazing property of the anaconda. It can be completely submerged, its mouth wider open than wide, ingesting some sort of prey and doesn’t inhale any water and drown itself because there is a little valve that works. Outside of a designer and a creator who made that anaconda that way or made that tern that way, just imagine if it took hundreds and hundreds and millions and trillions of whatever of years, a lot of them had to have drowned in that time, don’t you think? There are terns flying everywhere and the anaconda is submerging. I’m impressed with that sort of thing. I saw this other deal about seeds. It’s time to plant the garden and seeds are dormant. They just sit there dead and that’s one of the reasons that even in the secular sense the Easter season is meaningful because we see new life. We take these dead seeds, put them in the ground, and voila, they grow and even bear fruit and reproduce which is kind of an amazing thing. I read this article on the dormancy of seeds and the author puts the question, I hope rhetorically, “How does that seed know?” I think, “Guess what? That seed doesn’t know anything! It’s just a seed!” I’m told that they have taken seeds of grain from the tombs of the pharaohs of Egypt thousands of years old, planted them, and they grow, may I say, naturally. I’m impressed with what happens naturally. As Christian people, we have to start thinking the way God naturally thinks. From where we sit, we look at an atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and all the attendant miracles there, and we think, supernatural. For us, it is. We look at an empty tomb and a body that had been dead in there and now is alive and we say that’s supernatural. And it is, but folks, it only is to us. In God’s economy this stuff is natural. It’s the way it must be according to the laws that He has established. Isaiah 55:8-9 talks about God’s ways and His thoughts are higher than ours, as high as the heavens are above the earth. How high is that? Very high. He is doing what He has to do. He is establishing an eternal kingdom. He is doing it from where His position is. He is doing it naturally. Certain issues don’t come to God as a surprise. When it comes to Resurrection Sunday, when it comes to Easter and the whole idea of the cross and Pentecost and so forth, slow down and look at Jesus. Ponder for just a second just what it is about His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension. What is really going on here ought to change the way we think, ought to change the way we live, ought to change our lives. Let’s talk about the crucifixion. Acts 2 is a record of the day of Pentecost, seven weeks to the day after Resurrection Sunday when the disciples and others visited the tomb and it was empty. The Holy Spirit, in order to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah, shows up on schedule, undeniably. Everybody can see. Here comes the Spirit, all these people in the upper room, all these amazing phenomena taking place, and the tendency of many of the people there was to say these guys are just drunk. This is like natural, what happens when you drink to much. Peter says oh, my, no. This is actually supernatural. It has everything to do with Jesus who was crucified. So he sets them up and preaches to them the sermon to explain to them what God is about. We’ll pick up our thoughts in verse 22. Something supernatural had occurred, but it wasn’t supernatural to God. It’s the way He does things. Peter starts in Acts 2:22: Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. That word “attested” means clearly demonstrated, nothing hidden, nothing veiled. Folks, only seven weeks have gone by since the cross. That’s like from now back to Valentine’s Day. That’s not that long ago. He is calling upon their short-term memory. Let’s pull this together, he says, it wasn’t that long back. You know that happened. In verse 23 he says, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” Folks, that was a natural crucifixion. That was the way it had to be. That was the way it was going to be. Jesus was God’s Man, and they knew it, these people listening to Peter in Acts 2. They knew it and he pins them with it. After all, it was Nicodemus in John 3:2 who came to Jesus early in Jesus’ ministry and said, Jesus, we know that you have come from God because no one can do the things that you do except God be with him. Bingo! He had it. We know this is so. There were many convincing truths. There were people walking around as a result of Jesus’ ministry who had been lepers but now were cleansed, people who had been ill but now were well, people who had been possessed by evil spirits who then were made free, people who had been dead who were walking the earth alive because Jesus had so many convincing proofs. Folks, there was nothing wrong with Jesus! There was everything right with Him. What did He do wrong? we ask ourselves. Well, he must have done something wrong because the people killed Him. They had their reasons, didn’t they? Peter, in his sermon, said He was God’s man. You knew He was God’s man and you killed Him. Does that not just sound strange? That One who could go about doing so much good would be killed. This was not a cloak and dagger murder in the dark by a butler with a candlestick or something where nobody was around to see. This was not the conspiracy of a few religious people who thought we just can’t have this any longer. The crowd clamored, “Crucify him!” The same ones who had welcomed him into the east gate of Jerusalem as Messiah a week prior were now clamoring for Him to be killed. This was not a small issue. This came as no surprise to Jesus. Jesus knew this would occur naturally. How so? Let me read you a couple verses from Matthew 23. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders. That’s remarkable to me, that the people who had access to Scriptures and were most familiar with them were the ones most instrumental in killing Him. Verse 29: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous” but you killed them. The righteous, you kill. You bear witness against yourselves. You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You see, this is Matthew 23, toward the end. Jesus knows where this is going. There is something about righteousness and holiness that makes people squirm who aren’t that way, makes folks uncomfortable, makes folks naturally try to want to put some distance between themselves and that righteous or holy One. Think of it. Noah took a lot of ridicule because he walked with God. Joseph, Daniel, in the Old Testament. More recently, it was John the Baptist. What got John the Baptist in trouble? His stand for righteousness, his pointing his finger at Herodias and her illegitimate husband Herod Antipas and saying you two ought not to be married. It cost him his head because righteousness makes unrighteous people uncomfortable and that was the natural course of events. Why? Isn’t that odd? There is a natural explanation, it’s human nature. Let me speak theologically for just a second. I’ll let Paul do it for me in Romans 5. Here I have to say, if you are a Christian, you have to deal with these verses. In our 21st Century sophisticated age of tolerance and plurality, much of what the Bible says does not resonate with us. We just want to think it can’t really mean that. We’re not like that. In Romans 5, beginning in verse 6, the apostle relates the way it is with people. He says while we were still helpless – that’s one, it’s defining people, helpless – at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Helpless, now and ungodly. He goes on, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners” helpless, ungodly, sinners. Do you see? These are descriptive words deliberately used by the apostle to describe people outside of a living faith in Jesus Christ. Helpless, ungodly, sinners. Verse 10, “For if while we were enemies.” Isn’t that something? He is saying that human nature being what it is sets us naturally at odds with a holy God because He is and we ain’t. It is not saying that every person has a powerful, intense hatred of God. What it is talking about is the fact that people are naturally self-centered, self-absorbed, self-righteous and see God’s agenda as competitive. Human nature theologically is described that way. Holiness or righteousness naturally makes people uncomfortable and sometimes antagonistic. How could this happen to Jesus, naturally? There were two different tracks at work, I think, at the crucifixion of Jesus and the apostle touches on them. He says this man is delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God is superintending this. God is steering it. That’s what that word predestination means; it means that God has set up boundaries in advance to make it go where He wants it to go but he also says people are responsible. You nailed Him to a cross. You put Him to death. So we have two tracks; people on the one hand behaving like people, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-righteous. People behaving that way. The religious leaders looked at Jesus and saw so many people following Him they realized that if this guy is right, we have lost our power, our influence, our stature. We can’t have this. So they, out of envy and jealousy for their own power, wanted Him dead. The people, the masses who stood in the crowds and clamored for His blood, they just wanted a better life, but you see, that’s self-centered. They wanted Rome gone. They wanted their own nation. They wanted prosperity and peace, the same types of things people today want. Between the two, they set Jesus up for a death on the cross. On the other hand, how did God do this? By the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God had to see this crucifixion happen. By the way, do you realize that it is a good thing that the crucifixion happened because there our sins were paid for. That’s what God wanted out of His love for us. But when it came right down to the event, He didn’t have to make people do anything. People would do naturally what they were inclined to do. All God had to do was withdraw. You don’t have to create darkness at nighttime in a room. All you have to do is turn off lights and the room goes dark. Darkness isn’t a presence; darkness is an absence. That’s how God works with people. God didn’t have to do surgery on the heart of Pharaoh of Egypt for him to have a hard heart. Pharaoh would naturally have a hard heart. All God needed to do was withdraw grace and that’s what He did. All God did was withdraw grace and Jesus went to the cross. What has changed? Nothing really has changed in the hearts of people. People today, we people, us, are still naturally self-centered, naturally self-righteous. Jesus called it as it was. He called them for it and said you know there is a fix. He said it’s not all about you. It’s not all about your nation. It’s not all about the Romans. It’s not all about your circumstances. It’s all about God and His kingdom and what He is doing and what He wants, so repent. We would say if Jesus were here today we would do it differently. No, we wouldn’t. Jesus isn’t going to be any more accepted as a holy and righteous entity among people today that He was then. We may not come right out and crassly kill Him, but we would do our best to suppress and ignore Him. The way is open to us. Trust Him. The crucifixion was natural, natural in the course of things. So was the resurrection. This is the part that boggles my mind. Now Jesus had gone on trial. I have four different standpoints for this resurrection being natural, but backing off a little bit to the trial of Jesus we realize it wasn’t a very good one. It’s recorded in all the gospels, but I’m thinking in terms of the one in John’s gospel because there is more interaction with Pontius Pilate there. Jesus has been arrested on charges that are not legitimate and He is being tried on the basis of testimony of witnesses not consistent. The whole thing was a kangaroo court of the worst order. The Jews wanted Him dead and they couldn’t execute Him on their own. They had to get the Romans’ permission to do it. That’s why He ended up on the presence of Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was not excited about putting Jesus to death. As a matter of fact, he was downright nervous about it, not only because of what Pilate’s wife had warned him – she said I had bad dreams about this guy, don’t touch this – but it was in conversation with Jesus that he really got nervous. Pilate said, “Are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus said what are they telling you (John 18: 33). Pilate said, hey, this is Jewish business and Jesus said in verse 36 let me tell you about my kingdom. Now this is key, this is what makes for a natural resurrection. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s from another world, far better than this one, by the way. If my kingdom were of this world then my servants would be fighting to free me. But my kingdom is not of this world. “You are a king.” “Yes, I am.” Jesus said, “Indeed I am a king.” The trial, the interview, proceeds a bit until Pilate says in the next chapter, verse 10, “Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and I have the authority to crucify you.” I have that authority, Pilate said, I am the Roman governor representing the interest of the Caesar here in Judea. I have that legal authority to do this. And Jesus said no, you don’t. He said you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. From above, not from over there, but from up there. Big point because it is going to take us to an empty tomb. That’s where your authority actually comes from he says. And Pilate here says oh, boy, my wife was right. I should not have touched this. Now he knows he is clearly on the horns of a dilemma. So what happens? Back to Acts 2. He was put to death. Verse 24: God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death. God raised Him up again, a natural resurrection, folks, first of all from a legal standpoint. In our world, in our culture, we have a very convoluted and complex legal system. Many have pointed out, and I think accurately, we do not in this country, live in a system of justice; we live with a system of laws. I think there is a different between the two. In any event, here is Jesus, sentence of death, sentence carried out, and what He didn’t get was an appeal. He didn’t get a plea bargain option. He didn’t get was the opportunity to have anything suspended or commuted. He didn’t get an opportunity to appeal to a higher court, or did He? It seems to me that the sentence was not commuted nor was it reduced, but a higher court reversed it. Think of that. Sentenced to death; sentence carried out, execution complete, but in the higher court of the higher authority the sentence is reversed. No, death is not going to be the end. Legally, a higher court ordered the sentence reversed and instead of death, Jesus lives. I love that. From a practical standpoint here’s an interesting point in this verse. We have a natural resurrection. God raised Him up again (verse 24) putting an end to the agony of His death since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. This is strictly a practical issue. He had to rise from the dead based on a practical issue. Incidentally, there are two expressions here that are key. One is this business of the agony of death. Probably shouldn’t be translated agony or birth pangs. It rather is a carryover from several passages in the Old Testament, (II Samuel 22 and Psalm 18) where it talks about the snare, the cords, the net of death. David talks about this. This is surely language carried over from the Psalms. We’re not talking about the agony of it; we’re talking about the strictures of it, the net, the cord, holding Him in death. That’s what David wrestled with. You can go bear hunting with a butterfly net. You might even catch one, but he isn’t going to stay caught because the net is not strong enough to hold him. What this is saying is the cords of death are not strong enough to hold Him. Isn’t that great? It can’t be done. That’s our second word. One is the cords of death; the other is not able. It says it was impossible. You know what that word “impossible” means in Greek? It means “impossible.” It means not an option. It means, “Captain, we ain’t got the power.” We can’t do it. It isn’t like coming home from school, “Mom, can I have a cookie?” “No, you can’t. Wait for supper.” What you mean is, “May I have a cookie? Will you allow me to have a cookie?” And she is saying, “I will not allow you to have a cookie. You may not.” Cannot means she breaks both your arms. “You can’t have a cookie now.” Or she takes the cookies and runs them through the garbage disposal. You cannot have a cookie now. It isn’t an option. This is such a huge word here. There was never a thought that Jesus could be held by death. It isn’t an option; it’s impossible. It can’t be done, practically speaking. I cannot wrap my brain around that. I’ve been to too many funerals. But in His case, not a chance. Death cannot keep his prey. I love how that song goes. “He tore the bars away.” So practically, it isn’t going to happen. Third, where Peter takes us – we have legally, it’s natural. Practically, natural. Third, scripturally, it’s natural. This is where the apostle Peter takes us back to Psalm 16 where he quotes for us from verses 8 to 11. These are verses from the Psalm that are written by King David, knowing that he is line of Messiah, knowing that some day there would be this anointed deliverer, this Messiah, that would issue forth from his lineage who would be the one to save the world. David knew that, so in Psalm 16 he gives us what we would call a prophetic Psalm.
Hope – that means confident expectation that what I know is coming in the future.
I won’t be left there. I won’t be abandoned to there. He is speaking prophetically.
It’s not going to happen. The Bible predicts that it’s not going to happen. Peter goes on to explain.
and what’s left of him is still in the ground over there. He did decay. He went back to the earth from whence he came.
This is the one to whom he was referring when he said, “was not abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh suffer decay.
Legal standpoint, practical, scriptural, it’s all there, and finally, logical. Best word I could come up with. It means common sense. Common sense ought to tell us that God’s Son doesn’t belong in a grave. Think about it --the designer and the creator and the sustainer of all that is in a casket for keeps? No, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t fit. It is incongruent, it doesn’t make sense. The Son of God doesn’t belong in a grave. After all, wasn’t Jesus the One known as the bread of life, the water of life. “I will give it to you,” He told the woman at the well and then you will have an unlimited supply that I have given you, eternal life. He embodied it. He walked around with it. He dispensed it. Kill Him? How so? It doesn’t make sense. He said “I am the resurrection; I am the life. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.” He was very, very clear about that and was able to demonstrate it by giving life to various ones in the course of His ministry, wrecking funerals, raising people, presenting them to their mothers alive. This is Jesus. He gives it. He originates it. He is the fountain of life. Let me read from Colossians 1, probably one of the best places we could go for some help here. Speaking of Jesus, this is a direct reference to Jesus the Messiah, the apostle says:
He’s the One holding the whole thing together; He can’t die. How could He die? That’s why I love those angels in Luke 24 because the angels are from where He’s from. They know how things work in heaven. That’s their stomping ground. So they show up at the tomb of Jesus, probably having had something to do with the events following Jesus’ death and His descent. But there they are, nonetheless, at the tomb when the ladies show up on Sunday morning. Their desire was to do the natural thing. They were going to complete the burial preparations. They had to bury Him hastily the day He was crucified. Now they are going to come back and add the spices and embalm Him properly. So they show up, doing the natural thing, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They weren’t sure what to think. Other gospel corroborate this when they talk about maybe someone has been here, what’s going on, we’re not sure. They go in. Thankfully, they are perplexed with this, the two men standing near them in dazzling apparel. These would be angels; they don’t live there, they live in heaven but are visiting for just a second. The women were terrified. They did the right thing. They said this is a supernatural moment and the angels said to you it is, but not to where we are from. They bowed their faces to the ground and the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead.” It is absolutely unconscionable for the angels to think that the Son of God would be in this tomb. They reminded the girls He told you and sure enough, He is gone. This is a natural question for a citizen of heaven. What would Jesus be doing in a grave? Come on, girls. Think this through. The apostle Peter many years later wrote a couple letters. I’m going to read from one now as we wrap this up. As he has had many years from resurrection, from Pentecost, from that first sermon in Acts 2, many years, many adventures, many opportunities in his own life that the faith to be confirmed. He writes in I Peter 1:
Do you know Him? That’s the question. We can talk academically and argue academically for evidences for the resurrection of Jesus and so forth, but when it comes right down to it, what Peter is telling us here, “Does he live in you?” Have you and I surrendered our hearts to Him? If so, because He is raised, if we surrender our hearts to Him, we are united with Him then, spiritually, and His resurrection and ours are guaranteed because we are in Him. In I John 5:11-12 the apostle says, “This is the record, God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son [Jesus]. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” The question on Easter Sunday and every day is do I have the Son? Have I surrendered my heart to Him? Have I put all my trust in Him alone for this life and the next? If I have the Son, I have the life. And the life lasts forever. In heaven, that’s natural. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2007, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |