• It’s been a crazy week all in all.

 

• It’s been such a rough week.  I can't believe it was Judas.  I mean, we've been home boys these last three years and I just really admired him for overseeing the treasury.  What a tough task, to make such little money stretch so far...feeding the hungry, feeding us....12 other men...well Jesus never really ate much...usually only what was given to Him, but anyway that was a lot of pressure and he seemed to handle it so well.  He sat in the seat of honor in the upper room while we ate the Passover...I just can't believe it...

 

• And Peter, well we didn't even know that he was alive until after they had buried the Lord.  No one could find him.  Finally he wandered in, dirty and looking quite weak.  Odd sight really, he's always been so strong...he mumbled something about a rooster and that the Lord had told him, he had told him that he would do it...but he seemed to still be shocked at something...anyway, he hasn't been himself.

 

• I've been caring for Mary this week also, although she is just been kinda quiet.  She wept while we were there, while my Lord was suffering...she screamed a scream I have never before heard when that soldier thrust his spear into His side...I carried her back from the mount and here she has been for the last three days...

 

• Then this morning I awoke to the sound of great commotion as Mary and Mary had come to tell Mary (I know lots of Mary's around here...)  Mary Magdalene and Mary Cleopas had come very excitedly and very early and were going on and on about the tomb...I almost couldn't understand what they were saying because they were so excited as if they'd seen something they themselves couldn't believe...they were trembling, shaking in their voices, trembling as they spoke.  I ran in and heard them say that the body was gone....it was gone!  I was alarmed, who would steal our Lord's body...oh this is terrible, we must find His body!  But then I noticed, they weren't terrified but rather their trembles were excitement, almost joyous. 

 

• I spoke up and asked what is going on here...the body is missing?  I felt it was my duty to set out immediately and retrieve the stolen body of my Lord since He had left His mother in my care...then what I was told hit me like I was standing below a waterfall...in a moment I was drowning in a rush of emotion...for some reason I was afraid first...then for what seemed like the longest moments of my life I found myself scanning the vision of my memory and hearing again the words He had spoken...finally I remembered....I remembered...it’s almost as if I was there again...

 

 

 

• We had gone into the city and found a man carrying water just like He had said we would...we had arranged with him to eat the Passover at his place and I remember...as He washed my feet He looked into my eyes and said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome!” 

 

• Instantly I was back in the front room with Mary's...my mouth had dried up as I was breathing heavily and now I found myself trembling...I don't know how long I had been standing there scanning my memories and dealing with what they had told me...yes they Lord's body was gone but there in the tomb....angels, and they had said....they had said....HE IS RISEN!!

 

• I hadn't even noticed Peter had come in but as the reality of the moment returned to me I caught eyes with Peter and knew he now knew what I knew also....together without a word we took off!  We ran like never before and I arrived at the tomb just before Peter...the rock...it was removed...it was a moment you had to see to believe...I mean, I believed that Mary was telling the truth but I half expected to see the rock still in place....who could have removed this huge boulder?  It was even sealed with a special seal by the Roman guards at the direction of the High Priest but there it was...rolled away...and so I knelt down to see into the tomb and just as I did Peter rushed by me and went right in...

 

 

• I stood there frozen for what seemed hours...my mind was racing...I remembered that night on the sea when the wind was blowing and we were struggling just to keep rowing and then here He came, walking on the water...It was a terrifying sight but He had simply said “It is I; do not be afraid...”I recalled again that last meal we shared together when He stood and said “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me...”  His voice rang in my head saying “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live!”  My heart pounded.  Could He really be risen?  Is Peter in there right now talking to Him?  In an instant His words again rushed to through my memory and back into my ears it seemed...I heard Him say, “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see me.”  My knees almost gave out and I felt faint...I hadn't noticed that my breathing was now even harder than when we were running to get here....

 

• I looked down and a drop of sweat fell from my brow...I wanted to cry, I wanted to flee, I wanted to see Him, for Him to be there with me...I heard His voice, it was almost as if He was there with me yet the words were so familiar...He said, “John, these things I said to you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  Son, the time has come.”

 

 

 

• My eyes focused and I watched the drop of sweat hit the ground.  And just then Peter yelled to me, John get in here!  I bolted in following Peter's orders and there, the linen cloths lying there but not as if someone had pulled them off...they were in an odd position....undisturbed, as if the Lord was still in them yet He wasn't...and the handkerchief that had been around His head was off to the side a bit...neatly folded...this was no robbery...the grave clothes, so in order, so undisturbed....

 

• My fear was gone.  I had never stood inside of a grave before but this was no ordinary tomb...it felt more like, well oddly enough, like home.  Like when you've been out fishing all day, tired and sun worn and then you walk in your home and are greeted with all the familiarities of family...yeah it felt kind of like that....

 

• I felt Peter's hand on my shoulder.  I looked up at him and he was smiling with tears in his eyes.  Weeping almost but his normally rough, strong face was tilted a bit to the side and his cheeks were raised as they peered on top of his smile...soft his face was....he looked at me and with his deep voice which because of his tears sounded as a half whisper and a half shout...he said...John, John...He is alive!!!!  The Lord, John, the Lord has risen!!!

 

 

 

• I looked down for a moment and then back at Peter.  In a sort of reaction my mouth opened and I said, Peter...this changes everything. 

 

• And indeed....that day did change everything.  You see, Easter....the day we celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the grave, is the pinnacle of man's history.  The pivotal moment in the story of man....

 

• The story of man began beautifully.  A God who is perfection, who is love, created the human race in His own image (Genesis 1:27) and then looked upon His creation and saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).  He saw that what He had made was acceptable, without blemish and He walked with man in the garden....

 

• Yet God in His perfect wisdom gave man free will. Freedom of choice.  He formed man and He set man in a position of authority over his own will so that man would be free to either give that authority back to God out of love and a response to what God has done for them...in creating them...or the free will to retain that authority...and be their own master. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• God created mankind good...in a rightful position under God, pure, obedient...yet free >  but you know h

how the story goes...we read in Romans Chapter 5 that by one man sin entered the world and in Romans Chapter 3, through that legacy of sin, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  This is what is commonly referred to as the fall, or the fall of man....

 

• When man fell, God pronounced the consequences of sin saying “you shall return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you shall return.”  In Romans 6:22, Paul says “the wages of sin are death.....

 

• BUT.....

 

• ….the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Paul, while giving his testimony in front of King Agrippa in Acts 26 says “...as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

 

• Jesus, in the Hebrew Joshua, in the Hebrew Yeshuah, in the literal translation into English “God is Salvation...” has come to save men from the power of sin, in this life and in the next.  He has conquered death, He was conquered the grave, He has overcome this world and His free gift to us....eternal life.

 

 

• Each year the Jews would observe a high and holy day called Yom Kippur.  On this day each year the Jews would seek atonement, or forgiveness of their sins.  It’s also called the Day of Atonement.  God tells Moses in the 16th Chapter of Leviticus “...tell Aaron or the High Priest, not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die...”then God goes on to lay out specifically how Aaron should come...once a year, prepared in a specific way and with a specific offering.

 

• God told Moses that this should be a statute forever and so each year, on the 10th day of the seventh month the High priest would prepare by traditional and ceremonial fasting...he would have particular linens prepared for him that he would put on and then, with the ceremonial, biblical sacrifice he would enter into the Holy place...that room behind the veil in which God said His presence would be there on top of the Ark of the Covenant, on the mercy seat....and it would be there that He would offer the blood offering, sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice on the ark in order to make atonement for the sins of the people...

 

 

 

 

 

 

• But the Jews were an odd sort of folk and what they would do is they would actually tie a rope around the ankle of the High Priest because you see if everything wasn't prepared perfectly, if the sacrifice wasn't perfect and offered perfectly, then it would not be acceptable...it would not be perfect in the sight of God and therefore the High Priest would fall immediately dead....the sacrifice would not be acceptable to God and the forgiveness of sins for that year would not be given...and so the rope...if the High Priest was in there too long, they would tug the rope and pull out the dead body of the high priest....

 

• And so you see Jesus...the man whom we read of in the Bible is our High Priest, the High Priest of mankind...prepared specifically throughout history...48 major prophecies and over 300 minor prophecies given over 4000 years leading up to Jesus' birth, life, ministry and death!  The shear odds of  any one man fulfilling just 8 of those is calculated to be 1 in 100 trillion yet Jesus perfectly and majestically fulfilled them all...

 

• Then after eating His last meal, and regarding I shall drink of the vine no more until I drink of it in My Father's Kingdom, (which is parallel to a ceremonial fast that the High Priest would do 24 hours prior to the Day of Atonement)...Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (which literally translated means “the place of crushing”) there He prayed to His Father, if there is any other way....let this cup pass...which means two things...
• One > There is a way and that way lay before Jesus....and that way was the cross

 

• Two > As we know from the outcome of what happened, there is no other way...

 

• Jesus returned from praying in the Garden three times to His disciples and found them dead asleep!  He said, could you not but watch for one hour but He saw in them that futility, that weakness and He knew, without the perfect offering, the perfect preparation, the perfect sacrifice and that acceptance of that sacrifice by God the Father, there is no other way for man to get back to perfection

 

• And so they took Him that night and He endured unlawful trials, He endured accusations that were untrue, He endured being spat upon, being shamed...then after being delivered up to Pilate who found no offense in Him but because of the people He was given to the Roman guard to be scourged...and so they did...39 lashes across His flesh with the cat of nine tails...no confession....there was none to be made that had not already been made....He had already said I am the Way the Truth and the Life...and He had already said, Father if there is any other way....nevertheless, not My will by your will...all that needed to be confessed had already past...so He said nothing, He confessed nothing, He gave no defense...

 

 

• And then after He was scourged by the Roman guard and they took Him and they crafted a crown of thorns which speaks of a crown of sin and they laid upon Him the cross and forced Him to carry it to His own execution...and along the way we are told that His physical strength failed...He toppled under the weight of His wounds, the weight of the cross, the weight of our sin and one from the crowd was instructed help Him...

 

• And so there on the Mount Moriah, where thousands of years before Abraham had said to Isaac, God will provide Himself a sacrifice....they crucified Him...

 

• Truly we do not grasp the shear horror of crucifixion.  Medically one dies of asphyxiation, or suffocating...

 

• And as He was there on the cross, the Roman guards casts lots for his garments and traditionally a man's cloak would be given to him by his mother and we know that Mary was there and so she probably watched as they gambled for the cloak that she had worked hours on making for her Son, the Son of God....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• And you see, Jesus' blood flowed from seven places that day...seven being the number in the Bible of perfection...as He bore my sin and your sin...The bible says that they drove a nail through His feet and blood came from his feet you see because my feet have taken me where I should not have gone...and the Bible says that they drove nails through each of His hands because you see my hands have handled that which they should not, and his back bled from the scourging because you see I have turned my back on Him and followed my own way...and the Bible says that his head bled from the crown of thorns because you see my thoughts and my decisions have been evil and unworthy...and His insides, His heart as they pierced Him there on the cross with a spear and out flowed water and blood because you see my heart is sinful, self-seeking and unrighteous....

 

• ...but Jesus would have me to know and would have you to know....He'd say, Matt, son,,,,I've got you covered from head to toe....my foot, my foot, my hand, my hand, my back, my side, my head....all bled for you....to wash you clean of your sin.....I've got you covered...head to toe....and as I cried out Tetalistie!!! It is finished...there is now a way....

 

• And so our High Priest entered into the eternal Holy of Holies......

 

 

• And so they took Him off the cross and prepared Him for burial.  They wrapped Him in burial clothes and placed Him in a tomb....

 

• And then three days later they went to the tomb and the stone was rolled away and they looked in and according to Luke Chp 24 there the linens which speak of the linens of the High Priest with blood stains on them speaking of the sacrifice that would have been offered by the High Priest there in the Holy of Hollies and as He would sprinkle the blood no doubt blood would also get on his prepared, clean, white/perfect linens...and then also there on either side of the linen, an angel in shining garments...just like the cherubim on either side of the Ark of the Covenant...the mercy seat of God....and their message, “be of good cheer...HE IS RISEN!”

 

• You see the sacrifice, it has been accepted by God....atonement for sin has been granted....but not just for the sins of the year as in the type of the traditions as in the type of the OT, but the sins of all men!!  Our High Priest, He has come out of the Holy of Hollies....no need to pull the rope tied around his ankle you see because everything was perfect...acceptable!

 

 

 

 

 

• Ephesians 1:6 > He has made us acceptable through the cross...He has made atonement for my sin and for your sins through His blood!  And all of this is proven because He has come out!! All the Jews would shout for joy and celebrate when the High Priest would emerge from behind the vail alive because they would know that God had accepted the sacrifice made by the High Priest on behalf of the people and that their sins were forgiven them...

 

• And so today we celebrate the most important moment in human history...He has risen indeed and therefore through the free gift of God, salvation has been given to all men...to all those who will willingly call upon the name of Jesus Christ and accept him as their Lord and Savior. 

 

• We are covered....from head to toe....we are covered.  But we yet retain our free will...and God will not force us to Himself...but just look at the cross...oh how He wants us with Him....His goodness will be evident throughout all time as we peer upon the scars of the One who saved us....today, renew your commitment to Him, renew your love for Him...

 

• He is RISEN!!  He is risen!!