We will remain standing this afternoon for the reading of God's word, which will simply repeat the final two verses of our responsive reading found there in John chapter 20. Hear now the word of the Lord. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you for the truth that has been revealed to us confidently and securely and surely. May we learn this day how true your truth is, and we ask it in the name of Jesus Christ and all of God's people said. Amen. You may be seated. Well, this afternoon, we're going to focus on the glory of the resurrection. On Friday night, we contemplated the suffering of Jesus, extinguishing a candle with each of our reflections on his words that he spoke from the cross. And now this morning, we see them burn brightly again, because he, as the light of the world, is risen from the dead. Now, I don't normally tell a lot of stories when I'm up here in the pulpit, but it usually makes my wife nervous when I start. But this one's OK, honey. It's not about you. But I remember some years ago listening to a talk radio host. And you know how talk radio works. You've got a guy on the radio, and he comes up with subjects, and he tries to get people to call in so they can have conversations. Well, at this time, there had been another one of those reports about some finding in Jerusalem that, wow, this might actually be the tomb where they buried Jesus. So he took that news article and turned it into a kind of a gotcha question for the Christians in the audience hoping that they would call in. And he simply said, wow, this could be something. What if they actually found the body of Jesus in one of these tombs? Would that change how you treat others or your being a Christian? Would it make any difference in your life? Is what he was asking. And I remember that evening because it was kind of tragic. He got call after call from Christians who said, oh, I don't know what difference that would make. One saying, I don't think it would make any difference. I would still love the Lord and I would still continue on. And there was never the right answer, which is the answer the apostle Paul gives, that if that were true, if Christ is not risen from the dead, we're the most miserable of people and we call God a liar because he testified that Jesus rose. So to recap, The point I want us to understand this morning is that as Christians, we should be able to honestly answer any questions about whether Jesus lived or was resurrected from the dead. And we can start by saying that it has to be true, because otherwise it would mean that I am the most miserable of people. And so that allows us to turn then quickly to point out that such is not the case because we know that not only did Jesus live and die, but He rose from the dead. To have such confidence, we must understand the powerful witness that the Bible gives us for the resurrection. The Apostle Paul reviews that confidence in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where he speaks about the various eyewitness accounts that were given with the risen Jesus. He was seen by Cephas and by the 12. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once. God gave us many eyewitnesses to believe what one must believe to be saved. It is what we must accept in all of its simplicity. The witnesses say he rose, so we believe he rose. But we also know that that concept, that truth of the resurrection is what we can steady and meditate upon and grow in our understanding and faith of our entire lives until Christ returns and perhaps even into eternity. The bottom line is that good and sufficient evidence has been given for us to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead. As Dr. Schaffer often reminded us, the Christian faith is not a leap in the dark. Of course, there are many skeptics who object to the evidence God has given, and they do so in many ways, and I think we should understand them. Some simply reject all that the Bible has to offer, just as those soldiers who were the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection took bribes and lied about what they saw. Others are a little more subtle. They'll say, well, if the resurrection was such an important event, then the evidence we have is, well, I don't think adequate, or at least not how they would have given proof. If God would only do this for me, you've heard that. They might suggest better alternatives, like Jesus showing himself on a mountaintop for all of Jerusalem to see, rather than just a few select witnesses. Or doing the resurrection in a more modern time, when it could have been recorded with a video camera, because we transmit information so accurately today. Or having Jesus, and this is usually what some of them will say, having Jesus appear to each and every person that the Father has called into his kingdom. Let God come down, kind of like the Pharisees, come off the cross and I'll believe. Now God, in reality, could have done any or all of those things, but that's not how he chose to do things. So it is foolish to enter into such speculations, and if you answer the fool who raises such objections, you will only in the end appear foolish like them. We are told who the witnesses were, and we are to believe them. Now that's the simplicity side, but with that in mind, I also want to focus on an overview or the big picture of the resurrection. The Bible gives us four different gospel accounts, and it can be helpful to consider how they work together. You've often seen Pastor Liberati do that as he's gone through the Olivet Discourse. Such a reconciliation with the resurrection account can help us to see the excitement and even the confusion of that day of resurrection. It can be an important tool to help us be ready to give an answer for the faith that has saved us. Now, you may have noticed on your way in and grabbed one. If you didn't, you can get one on the way out. I put together a little worksheet that has the parallel accounts of those four gospel accounts on what they tell us about the resurrection. And you can also find that online with our sermon audio link or our webpage. There's a fifth column in that worksheet, which is a summary that I put together of the events that proposes how all the various details can be reconciled. I did this a number of years ago, and some have asked, well, why did you go to all that trouble? Well, two reasons. As I will review today, it helps us to see the benefit and the richness of having the four witnesses of the Gospels for this day and for the rest of the work of Jesus. It also answers one of the great challenges that has been leveled against the faith. that the various accounts of the resurrection simply cannot be reconciled with each other, claiming that they are simply full of contradictions. For example, some years ago, Dan Barker issued what he called the Easter Challenge, asking Christians to tell me exactly what happened on that day that their most important doctrine was born. Now, it is interesting to note that Mr. Barker went on to say that we should be eager to take up that challenge because, quote, without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Now that's exactly the Apostle Paul's point that we've talked about in 1 Corinthians 15, where he says, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. So it's interesting that the Bible and the skeptics agree on one point. No resurrection, no Christianity. No resurrection, no salvation. This is why things like the Easter Challenge are made, and why it is important that we be prepared to give an answer to these fools. The challenge for Mr. Barker was simple. He said, without omitting a single detail from these separate accounts, write a simple chronological narrative of the events of that day. Now, I and others have offered such summaries which meet his challenge, but we must remember that unbelief will often still have a hardened heart. The soldiers, who were probably the ones who actually witnessed the resurrection, did not bow in faith, but they ran off to accept bribes and to tell lies. So, do I think that without divine intervention of the Holy Spirit that Mr. Barker or any of the other skeptics are going to read my summary and then fall to their knees in repentance to the Lord of Lords? No. Though they will certainly bow one day. And our prayer is that they will do it sooner rather than later. This material can be used for further study. I hope you'll take it and go through it and have discussions with your families and share it with some others. Now, my summary is not the only way that you can put all these details together to be accounted for, but it confirms that we have been given a faithful account. It gives us an answer for our faith and, Lord willing, strengthens our faith. So let me walk through just some of the summary that I presented as a means of seeing the overview of the events that occurred on that glorious day. First, we see that a group of women who had followed Jesus begin their trip to the tomb in the dark and arrived just after sunrise. Now here's the first example of how easy it is to bring the details together without contradiction. However, this is where some skeptics see nothing but contradictions because all of the accounts do not have the same list of women and one speaks about it being dark while the other speaks of sunrise. In a sense, what they're demanding is that God give us only the summary and not the various accounts that he chose to give us. The various accounts in text remind us of the richness we have in the accounts that God has chosen to give us. Now Matthew's account, which we read this morning, sees the resurrection of Jesus bringing a great earthquake. An angel rolls back the stone. He sits on it and terrifies the soldiers. Think about that. People want an experience to get saved? Can't top that. And yet they had hard hearts. I believe at this point Mary Magdalene, I'm sorry, the women then arrive and see the stone has been rolled away. Now I think at this point Mary Magdalene runs to tell the disciples what happens. She just gets excited and runs off. Now that's not often how it is presented, but I think it is the best way to reconcile the accounts because we are told that Jesus appeared first to Mary. So the details are important. Now the other women enter the tomb and they see two angels. The one who sat on the stone then speaks to the women. Now let me stress that again there should be no problem with the varying descriptions and numbers of angels. Angels can be fearful. like they were to the soldiers, or they can appear like men or women, as they must if we entertain one of them without even knowing it. We see the variations in the gospel accounts. There can be two or more, but only one of them speaks. So it is not a contradiction for Mark to only mention the one who is speaking. And let me give you an example that I think will help here and in other places in the Gospels. Let's say that Tom and his uncle go to the police department to give an account of an accident that they just witnessed. And after the meeting, the police officers would then write up a report of what happened. And they could begin their report one of three ways. One could say, Tom came and said, if Tom was the only one that spoke. Another could say, Tom and his uncle came and said, even if Tom was the only one that spoke. And still another could say, two men came and said. All of those statements would be true. As an aside, this is an important principle to remember when you see seemingly difficult passages between the gospel accounts. Now coming back to the summary, the women remember how Jesus spoke of his resurrection, and they go to tell the others, saying nothing on the way. Mary Magdalene returns to tell the disciples that the body is missing, and we know that Peter and John then run back to the tomb. John and Peter arrive at the tomb after the women have left. John comes to believe. Peter goes away marveling at what he had seen. Mary now returns to the tomb after the others have left. And Mary enters to see two angels who ask her why she is weeping. John makes sure in his account that we see each angel sitting at each end of the slab where Jesus was buried. just as there were two cherubim that were placed on either side of the mercy seat where the sacrifices were made in the Holy of Holies. You know, we've talked about the scriptures being like fine jewels that can be viewed from various angles. These resurrection accounts are not just recounting facts. This happened, then this happened, then this happened. But they are reminding us about the grand story of salvation. The reminder of the mercy seed in the Holy of Holies is then followed by John's account of Mary's encounter with Jesus, where? In the garden. because she thought the man behind her was a gardener. Which should remind us of many other biblical images that run from Genesis to Revelation. From where God was found walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, to the Garden City of Jerusalem coming down as the Bride of Christ. Thus it is very fitting that Jesus makes his first appearance to Mary Magdalene in a beautiful garden scene where the air would have been filled with the fragrance of all the spices that were used to entomb the body of Jesus when they buried him. Another detail that is easy to miss. So your homework, if you'd like to take it up, it would be to review this beautiful scene and see how it is foretold in the Song of Solomon, that great love story in the Old Testament. So now Mary returns to tell the disciples the good news. Jesus then makes his second appearance to the other women who are still on their way to the disciples, and Jesus confirms what they heard from the angels. The women then continue on to tell the disciples the good news. And it's interesting to note at this point that those women were not believed. Also interesting that God used women in that age as his witnesses. That's another story. This is where having the four witnesses gives us a better feel for the excitement and confusion of that day. Luke refers to Peter's trip to the tomb, and we know that Jesus makes an appearance to Peter at some point, but we're not given the details of that visit. Jesus also meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus later in the afternoon, explaining to them that they should have known all about these events. Where? From the law and the prophets. A great reminder for us all to study the Old Testament. Those disciples now return to Jerusalem after the women have returned as well as Peter. The other disciples are in turmoil proclaiming what had happened, but at the same time not really believing it. It's just too good to believe, perhaps. And again, I would argue that the various accounts showing both belief and unbelief present a more accurate picture of just what the confusion and excitement about the events of that day would have been. It was an amazing day. So soon after this, Jesus makes an appearance to those who are now gathered in Jerusalem. Mark, Luke, and John give the details of what Jesus said during that appearance. Jesus shows them his wounds, and he aid in their presence, confirming that his was a physical, bodily resurrection. And finally, Matthew tells us what happened to the soldiers who were at the tomb during the resurrection, giving us a clear contrast of belief on the one hand and unbelief on the other. The soldiers refuse to acknowledge the very event that they witnessed, just like the modern skeptics who are paid to write books and give lectures intended to destroy the faith of many. This is contrasted with the faithful disciples who, though they had doubts right up to the giving of the Great Commission, they would then go on to give their very lives defending the truth of the resurrection in the coming years as they took the gospel to all the world. John goes on to give the account of Jesus visiting disciples with Thomas a week later, which we'll review a bit more at the table this afternoon. And then we come to what I called our text for this afternoon. John writes, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, confirmed what John said. We have life in his name if we hold true to what was preached, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. As I pointed out earlier, the world skeptics and the apostle Paul agree that the resurrection is the key. Let us not be those who seek to tear this truth down, or even be those who are silent in the presence of such attacks. Let us be those who, with Paul, boldly proclaim the life-giving truth of the gospel. Christ is risen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the power of the resurrection that has changed literally the entire creation. As you bring forth the new world and the new heavens and the new earth, may we be those who labor with you and not against you. May we be those who are faithful to the very end. We ask and pray this in the name of your blessed son Jesus and all of God's people said. Amen. Let us rise now and sing our hymn of response. which I lost. What's the hymn? Up? No, it's not up from the grave. All hail the power of Jesus' name.