Sermon - Easter Sunday, 17th April

As we draw together this Easter Sunday, Alistair Stevenson shares an exploratory sermon on the resurrection of Jesus and the hope that this gives us.

How do we know that something is real?

Imagine with me that I had an Easter egg, all wrapped up and in its box. From the outside it looks like an Easter egg, the same as any chocolate egg you would find in a supermarket. But how do you find out it is actually a real chocolate Easter egg? Well, the only way to do that would be to open up the packaging, pull out the egg inside and take off the wrapping. Even then, it might look like a chocolate egg, it might even smell like a chocolate egg – but the only way you’re really going to know is it a real chocolate easter egg would be to taste it.

Some things might look real from the outside, but sometimes we need to use all our senses to figure out if it is the real thing.

In our passage this morning we read from Luke’s gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples on that first Easter. Earlier the women had found the empty tomb and returned to the disciples telling them that Jesus’ body had gone. Peter himself had run to the tomb to see for himself. Later that day two of Jesus’ followers had taken the road to Emmaus and had met a fellow traveller. The traveller journeyed with them to Emmaus, where they ate together. But it was only in the breaking of the bread that they suddenly realised it was Jesus who had been travelling with them all along. They immediately ran back to Jerusalem, found the disciples and announced that Jesus had risen.

As they are speaking, Jesus appears amongst them all and says ‘Peace be with you’. They were startled and frightened thinking they were seeing a ghost.

Only three days ago they had watched as their friend, their Messiah, the one who had fulfilled all their hopes and dreams, arrested, falsely accused, mocked, beaten, tortured and ultimately lifted on a cross to die like a common criminal. They had seen it all. They had seen Jesus die.

And now this same Jesus was here in their midst. It couldn’t be him, could it? That’s impossible. Jesus is dead. Surely this is a ghost.

Jesus then does three things to help the disciples see that he was real. To help them know that he was the Jesus who had defeated death and rose again.

First, Jesus says:

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

The resurrected Jesus wasn’t just a part of the disciple’s imagination. He was there – in flesh and blood – standing with the disciples. You can imagine the disciples hesitantly approaching Jesus. Slowly reaching out to touch his robe, to take hold of his hand, maybe even to hug him. Jesus was there, he was real.

The disciples, however, despite being able to see and touch Jesus, still don’t believe that he is real and so secondly, Jesus askes them for something to eat, and is given some fish and eats it in their presence. You can’t quite believe that he would do something so normal, or part of watch it means to be alive.

Thirdly, Jesus opens up the scriptures and shows them that his death and resurrected are real because they fulfilled all that was promised in scripture.

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Now they got it. How it was all planned. How it had all been explained for thousands of years. Now they knew he was God. As a man. Raised to rule. They had to keep reading their Bibles to understand the impossible.

The writer Tom Wright puts it like this: “A new power is let loose in the world, the power to remake what was broken, to heal what was diseased, to restore what was lost. Jesus’ risen person – body, mind, heart and soul – is the prototype of the new creation.”

In these three ways Jesus proves that he is the resurrected Jesus and the disciples, Jesus declares, are to be witnesses to these things. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus tells the disciples that they will receive the Holy Spirit and they will be his witnesses – in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

This is the call that Jesus gives to all those who are his disciples. We are called to be witnesses to the resurrected Jesus in our lives.

In the same way that Jesus proves himself as the resurrected Jesus to the disciples he can do the same for us today.

Firstly, we can know Jesus through his presence with us. Through his Holy Spirit we can experience and sense Jesus in our lives. While the disciples were able to actually see Jesus and to touch him with their physical senses – we can feel his presence with our spiritual senses.

Many people describe the spirit of Jesus like the wind. We can’t actually see the wind, but we see the effects of the wind blowing and impacting everything it touches. In the same way we may not be able to see the Spirit of Jesus but we can see his effect everywhere.

Today – do you sense the resurrected Jesus in the midst of your life?

We can know that the resurrected Jesus is real because we can know and sense his presence.

Secondly, Jesus eats with his disciples. Eating is one of the most normal, everyday things of life. We need food to survive. Jesus proves that he is real by eating with his disciples.

We can know that the resurrected Jesus is real because when we invite him into our lives, he becomes part of our everyday. We don’t have to go to some special building, or to say special words. We don’t have to carry out certain special rituals. Jesus can be known and found in the everyday things of life.

Our faith is not grounded on words written on a page – it is not founded on smart teachings, on religious settings, on images or idols. Our faith is founded on a real, personal relationship with the living Jesus who comes to transform every part – every nook and cranny – of our lives.

I love Eugene Peterson’s Message translate of Romans 12 v 1. He says this:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”

As Jesus proved that he was real to those disciples by eating with them, so Jesus wants us to invite him into the everyday aspects of our lives so he can prove that he is real and at work. It has definitely been the case in my life that the more I invite Jesus in my life – into my everyday – the more I know his presence.

Today – will you invite the resurrected Jesus in the everyday of your life? Will you take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering?

Thirdly, Jesus makes himself know to the disciples by opening up scripture and showing how every page speaks of him.

How can we know that resurrected Jesus is real? We can look to the Bible; we can study the scripture. We’re fortunate to have both the Old and New testaments. The more we delve into the word, the more we realise that it all points to Jesus.

Jesus is Risen! His resurrection changes everything and can transform the life of every person who invites him in.

Like an Easter Egg, ready to be opened, to be tasted, to be experienced, will you open up the life of Jesus and invite him to take control of your life. Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. Without it our faith is meaningless. We do not believe in a dead God - we believe in a God who has defeated death and who makes it possible to have a living relationship with Him.

Jesus is not dead he is alive! Today we celebrate, we rejoice because of that amazing truth! Will you allow God to cause a resurrection in your own life and then be ready for all that his is going to do in you and through you? Amen