The late, C.S. Lewis is a well known Christian apologist and author.  You know him for many of his books, The Narnia Tales and, Mere Christianity are two of his better known writings.  C.S. Lewis was brilliant.  He taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, for nearly thirty years, from 1925 to 1954, and later was the first Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. What is more, he was a committed atheist. 

Listen to his account of his conversion to theism.  “You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England”

God wanted to meet Lewis, and God wants to meet you.  He created you and he loves you.  And God has revealed himself in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.  This morning we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  In Jesus Christ everything necessary for you to meet God has been arranged. We meet God through his Son, Jesus.  And this morning I want to say that the resurrected Jesus is ready to meet you.

I. JESUS DIED. Mt.28:1

It’s difficult for us to put ourselves in the place of those first followers of Jesus.  They were convinced that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah.  At the death of Lazarus, Martha said to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.” But then Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified, and this not only brought great sorrow, but also disillusionment.  How could the Messiah die?  How could the Son of God die?  On the day after Jesus died two of his followers were walking and talking on the road to Emmaus.  One of them said, in Luke 24, “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”  The death of Jesus brought both personal loss and religious or spiritual disappointment.

But this is how it is with death.  When a loved one dies the loved one’s family and friends are filled with grief and loss.  There is a deep emptiness and it’s not unusual for those who are grieving to question the goodness and grace of God.  “How could a loving God let my loved one die so young or in this or that way?” The sense of loss can be so acute that the mourners experience a deep malaise and emptiness in life.  “What should I do?  How can I go on?” After Jesus was betrayed and crucified, we learn in John 20 that the disciples were “together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.” Jesus had been crucified because the Jewish religious leaders saw him as a threat.  The disciples were afraid that they might be next on the list.  I mean, at one point the religious leaders were plotting to kill Lazarus as well.

But we must also point out that Jesus’ death was not brought about only because of the jealousy of the religious leaders.  The Bible makes it clear that Jesus came to die for our sins.  In Romans 5, Paul says that “Christ died for the ungodly”.  “Christ died for us.” In 1Cor.15 Paul writes that Christ died for our sins.  In 1Pt.3:18 we read, “For Christ died for sins once for all,  the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” In Mark 10:45 we read, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” God the Father sent God the Son to die for our sins, so that we can be saved, entering into the Kingdom of God

When Jesus was crucified, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.  Jesus never committed even one sin.  He is the only one who could’ve bore our guilt and paid the penalty for sin, which is death.  Jesus died, and now here were these two women coming to the tomb on the first day of the week.  Luke says they were bringing spices to finish the burial process.  They came to the tomb in sorrow and love to care for the body of Jesus.  Now the tomb had been sealed by a huge stone.  A guard had been posted to prohibit anyone from stealing the body. How they would get into the tomb?  Yet they came.  Jesus had died

 II. JESUS IS ALIVE. Mt.28:2-7

Well you see the facts as they are recorded in Matthew’s Gospel.  The earthquake, the guards paralyzed with fear, the angel, the stone removed from the entrance, and the empty tomb. And then there’s the message on the angel’s lips.  “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” Who would not want to receive a message like this about a loved one who has died?  But wait a minute.  Dead people do not rise from the grave.  There must be another, more reasonable, explanation.

You see the problem?  It’s a problem for the women and for us?  All we have is a message.  “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” How could they be sure?  How can we be sure?  Since people do not rise from the dead, all sorts of “reasonable” explanations have been offered; everything from, Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, he only swooned or went unconscious and was later revived, to his disciples stole the body, to it wasn’t really Jesus on the cross.  And then there are those who point out that this story about the resurrection of Jesus was fabricated by his early followers in order to establish the Christian Faith.  My goal this morning is not to answer all the arguments for why Jesus could not have risen from the dead.

For the moment, let’s just supposed that the resurrection is something of a legend cobbled together by the gospel writers. If it is, they were either brilliant or stupid.  It’s obvious that the writers did not work together.  There are some significant differences of detail in the way the accounts read.  The differences are not such that the accounts are contradictory, but there are differences.  What is more, it’s very hard to understand why in each of the accounts women would be the first ones to hear the message of the resurrection.  Women had absolutely no credibility in that culture.  Their testimony was not considered to be valid. And yet, in each account it is the women who first hear of Jesus’ resurrection and they convey the good news.  If we were going to fabricate a story would we include details that would work against validating the story? 

In the apocryphal book known as, The Gospel of Peter, that existed sometime before 200 AD, we find a description of the resurrection of Jesus.  Part of the description (10:2-5) says, “While they were explaining what they had seen, again they see three men leaving the tomb, two supporting the third, and a cross was following them. The heads of the two reached up to the sky, while the head of the third, whom they led by the hand, reached beyond the skies. And they heard a voice from the skies that said, ‘Have you preached to those who sleep?’ And an answer was heard from the cross: ‘Yes!”

Dr. Charles Quarles, professor of New Testament and Greek at Louisiana college writes that, “John Dominic Crossan, a former Catholic priest, and co-founder of the Jesus Seminar,... has claimed that the Gospel of Peter was the product of a complex evolution. The earliest layer of the Gospel was a hypothetical source called the “Cross Gospel.” Crossan argued that this early layer served as the only written source for the narrative of Jesus’ death and resurrection in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  There are a number of solid reasons why Crossan’s theory is incorrect http://www.4truth.net/fourtruthpbbible.aspx?pageid=8589952754).  As you can tell, the Gospel of Peter is more in keeping with legend.  And we can quickly see how measured and restrained Matthew’s account of the angel and the opening of the tomb is compared to this legendary account.  In fact, each of the gospel accounts read as historical narrative.  While the appearance of angels is not an everyday event in the Bible, it is certainly not an uncommon event.  Angels played a prominent role in Jesus’ birth and resurrection.

When we look closer at the text we see that the angel did not require the women to just blindly accept his message.  The angel said, “He has risen, just as he said.” O, that’s right, Jesus did tell his followers that he was going to be killed and that he would be raised in three days.  That’s a bit of evidence that the women and others could take into consideration.  What is more, the angel told them to go have a look at the tomb for themselves.  The stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out.  It was rolled away to let the world have a look.  I also find it interesting that all four accounts do not hide the fact that a number of Jesus’ followers had their doubts.  Even Thomas, one of the twelve, said, “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 it.”  Evidence is extremely important, but evidence is certainly not absolute proof.  And yet, if you were to gather all the bits of evidence, and many have done this and have written books, you would find that there are more compelling reasons to accept the resurrection of Christ from the dead than there are reasons to reject the resurrection of Christ. Even the late atheist philosopher, Antony Flew (who became a theist a year before he died) said that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested miracle claim in all the world’s religions.

I point this out because you and I are dependent upon a message and the evidence that supports the message.  In John 17 when Jesus prayed for his disciples he said, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one....” We are here today because we heard a message about the death and resurrection of Christ.  The message is profound.  The evidence is compelling.  The tomb is empty and many of those first followers of Jesus Christ were willing to be martyred for Christ.  I have never met anyone who would willingly die for something known to be a lie.  But there’s more....

III. HERE’S JESUS! Mt.28:8-10

We are not surprised to read that the women were filled with fear and joy.  But their joy was going to greatly increase because as they were going, Jesus met them.  He just appeared to them.  But he wasn’t a ghost.  He spoke from his mouth. “Greetings!” Then the women kneeled and clasped his feet.  His feet were flesh and bone.  And they worshipped him.  Faith had become sight.  They believed the message and they experienced a personal encounter with the risen Savior.

Now the message of Christianity is a message of how God sent his Son, Jesus into the world to die on the cross.  In dying on the cross, Jesus bore the guilt of our sins and paid the penalty our sins deserve in our behalf.  He died in our place.  The message of Christianity is that those who repent of their sin and put their confidence, their trust, their faith in Jesus as the only Savior from sin, they will be saved.  Their sins will be forgiven on the basis of Jesus’ death.  They will receive a new, eternal kind of life to live on the basis of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  Those who embrace the resurrected Savior by faith immediately enter the Kingdom of God.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come to live in that person’s life.  In other words, those who embrace Christ as their Savior and Lord, experience a living encounter with our Living Lord.

Jesus joyfully met these women.  He surprised them.  Jesus joyfully wants to meet you.  He wants to bring the joy of his life to you.  Do you want to meet him.  You can meet him if you want to.  In fact, he’s already calling your name.  “Come to me.  Come to me and find rest for your soul.” Have you met Jesus?

In his book, Has Christianity Failed You? Ravi Zacharias points to one of the greatest proofs for the truth of Christ and the reality of his resurrection: the changed lives of those who have met Jesus by faith. He writes: “During the course of nearly 40 years, I have traveled to virtually every continent and seen or heard some of the most amazing testimonies of God’s intervention in the most extreme circumstances. I have seen hardened criminals touched by the message of Jesus Christ and their hearts turned toward good in a way that no amount of rehabilitation could have accomplished. I have seen ardent followers of radical belief systems turned from being violent, brutal terrorists to becoming mild, tenderhearted followers of Jesus Christ. I have seen nations where the gospel, banned and silenced by governments, has nevertheless conquered the ethos and mind-set of an entire culture.

Then in his own words Zacharias lists examples of Christ’s power to transform lives:  [Let me share one]:  “The British author A. N. Wilson, who only a few years ago was known for his scathing attacks on Christianity...celebrated Easter [in 2009] at a church with a group of other church members, proclaiming that that the story of the Jesus of the Gospels is the only story that makes sense out of life and its challenges. [Wilson said], ‘My own return to faith has surprised none more than myself....My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known-not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in light of the resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.’”

Well, I don’t know what you think about the message of Christ and his resurrection from the dead.  I do know that no other world religion, no other philosophy or worldview can change your life and eternity like Jesus can.  He is alive and he will be alive in you, if you will have him as your Savior and Lord.