He is Risen! Sunday, March 27, 2016

Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 1. Luke says that Jesus has his flesh and bones, then he is Lord.  Paul in Athens Acts 17: 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

 Paul is saying the search is over. He is here.  The philosophers knew that Christianity was making a claim that no other religion made.  Why? Nobody was ever raised like Jesus. Jesus grave clothes are lying there.  The disciples were terrified, when they saw Jesus because the door was locked.  ‘The stone was not rolled away so he could get out, but so that the disciples could get in.  Death lost its grip on Lazarus. Lazarus rose to die again.  Jesus destroyed death. The death of death.

 Jesus lives in a whole new realm. The first born of the dead. The son of God.  John in revelation When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.  Jesus says I am the life.Wherever he is there is resurrection. Martha wherever I am is resurrection.  Don’t search, repent. I am truth. I am the life.  God overlooked the times of ignorance, but the time is now.

 Luke knew exactly what he meant to record. Jesus eats a fish, broiled fish- Unnecessary details for a legend. Not a legend, a claim.  Luke and John and the gospel writers all make this claim: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us

2. If Jesus is flesh and bones, you have a whole new way of relating to the world.  This world is so important to Jesus that he came to redeem this world.  You can live your life without any regrets.  People are so afraid that they are going to miss out.  Easter says: if you unite with Jesus, you will miss out on nothing.

 Relax, live, sacrifice At present, if we are reborn in Christ, the spirit in us lives directly on god; but the mind and, still more, the body receives life from him at a thousand removes— through our ancestors, through our food, through the elements. The faint, far-off results of those energies which God’s creative rapture implanted in matter when he made the worlds are what we now call physical pleasures; and even and thus filtered, they had too much for our present management. What would it be to taste at the fountainhead that stream of which even these lower reaches prove so intoxicating? Yet that, I believe, is what lies before us. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy. Lewis

 You are promised a physical future, you will run, you will dance, you will hug, and you will love.  God has not abandoned this world, but has entered this world. Jesus is the first fruit from the dead.  “Here, then, is the message of Easter, or at least the beginning of that message. The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t mean, “It’s all right. We’re going to heaven now.” No, the life of heaven has been born on this earth. It doesn’t mean, “So there is a life after death.” Well, there is, but Easter says much, much more than

 that. It speaks of a life that is neither ghostly nor unreal, but solid and definite and practical. The Easter stories come at the end of the four gospels, but they are not about an “end.” They are about a beginning. The beginning of God’s new world. The beginning of the kingdom. God is now in charge, on earth as in heaven. And God’s “being-in-charge” is focused on Jesus himself being king and Lord. The title on the cross was true after all. The resurrection proves it.” N.T. Wright N.T. Wright

3. Since Jesus is flesh and bones, he says, “Touch me.”  Mary Magdalene was not allowed to touch him. Why?  She wanted to relate to him in a way he was not yet ready for. She loved his presence and never wanted to lose him again. For three days he had been an inspiration to her-that was not enough for her. She had encountered him again in the garden, and she did not want to let him. She knew the kind of sinner that she was. No one had ever loved her like Jesus. She wanted to hold on.  What she wanted would only be accomplished when he had ascended and then when he sent his Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Then not only would she experience the fulfillment of her great longing, but anyone could experience him in the same way.