I don't know about you, but it seems to me as I look around, particularly the Internet, since COVID, that there are many, many, many conspiracy theories and views on what's happening in the world and how things are being done in the background that we don't necessarily see. There's interesting news articles and so on. And as a casual observer, if you wanna try and work out if any of that is true, what's true and what's false, what's right and what's not, the only thing that you can really do is investigate. You have to go and do some research. You have to go to the original source material.
You have to go and watch the video that supposedly proves it all. You have to go and read the research paper. You have to go and do whatever you can to try and work out what's true, if you actually care, of course, because some of them you go, well, whatever. Who cares? But now if that's true for some conspiracy theories, it may or may not be true, it may not matter all that much.
It is much more true, isn't it, for the actually important questions of life. The questions that people ask, does God exist? Which God exists? And so on and so forth. Now I'm just gonna assume that if you're here this morning that you kinda have made your choices in with regard to that.
But here's the thing. When it comes to Christianity, it's not just a question of, oh, do these ideas make sense? Does this theory make sense? Does this way of living make sense? Now, you see, when it comes to Christianity, we've got to answer the question, did these things really happen?
Because unlike other religions, Christianity is rooted in history. It matters whether or not God led the Israelites out of Egypt. It matters whether there was a King David. It matters most especially whether there was a Jesus who walked the earth, who died, and then for today, who rose again. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, which Quentin already read a few verses for us from that chapter.
He says, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if the resurrection didn't happen, then we are to be pitied above all. And so what are we gonna do today? I'm gonna read for you, in just a second. I'm gonna read to you from Luke 24.
I'm assuming that it will come up behind me. I don't know, but I'm gonna assume that. If not, you I'm sure you have your Bibles. Open it up to Luke 24. I'm gonna read to you some verses from there, and we're gonna look at those verses because Luke wants us to not just know the importance of the resurrection, we're gonna think about that, but he wants us to know definitely that it did happen.
And in this account of Jesus' resurrection, he has put all sorts of little bits and pieces, little bits of information so that the reader, us now, and all through history can know for sure what he is telling us about Jesus' resurrection. So let's go Luke 24:1, and then we'll read a few verses, we'll skip forward again. So Luke 24:1. But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb. Now they, you have to go back a few verses, is the women.
The women who were with Jesus at His crucifixion, they stayed with Him right till the end, and then some of them went to the tomb afterwards. Well, here they are. They're back again on the first day of the week, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember He told you while He was in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise. And they remembered His words. And return from the tomb I'm sorry.
And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marvelling at what had happened. So now we're gonna skip the story of the road to Emmaus, and we're gonna come down to verse 36.
As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, He said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. Then He said to them, these are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.
And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of My father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then He led them out as far as Bethany and lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
And so I'm sure many of you, I'm guessing, maybe even all of you, since we've been singing about it, know that Jesus rose from the dead. This morning then for you as it was for me preparing this is an encouragement, an encouragement to understand that, yes, He surely did. It's a help to us as we engage with people who don't believe. It's a help to us in those moments when we start to question things. But perhaps you're here this morning and you're not entirely sure.
You're not convinced that Jesus rose from the dead. You're not convinced about Christianity, in fact. Well, that's fine. Let's take a look at what Luke has to say and why what he reports is trustworthy. Now before we do that, it's even worth just noting that when it comes to the resurrection, if we're talking about proof and how sure it is, that we actually have six sources of Jesus' resurrection.
Five authors, six different places that it's talked about. Now, obviously, four of those are the gospels, then there's Acts, and there's 1 Corinthians 15. Now you might say, hang on. That's not six sources. That's one.
They're all in the bible. You didn't mention anything outside the bible. Well, no. But you understand, of course, that early on, you could have had three people in a conversation where one came and said, oh, have you seen Mark's account of Jesus' life? And the other person might have said, well, no, I've never had a chance to read that before.
I've got bits of Luke's account of Jesus' life, but and then a third person would come in and say, well, I haven't had a chance to see any of that. I've only seen bits of Paul's letter to the Corinthian people. Right? That is they were all separate documents floating around the ancient world being copied and shared amongst the churches, and now they're being collated into one book. And so historians, when they look at all these sources, they go, well, this is interesting.
These people were actually writing what they thought happened. This is a trustworthy source. This is a trustworthy account, at least as far as they thought that that happened. Now they obviously, many people don't believe them, but they thought it happened. And so we have to decide as we read this whether that's what really happened.
Well, what does Luke tell us? He starts with these women who go to the tomb. These are women, as I say, who cared for Jesus and who were with Jesus to the end. They head to the tomb, and we're told in another gospel, they were very concerned about how they were gonna get the stone away because it was so enormous. But they get there, and they find that the stone has been moved.
They look inside the tomb, there's nothing there. Just these linen lying around, which in itself is a thing that Luke is telling us because if someone stole the body, it would be very unlikely that they would take the time to unwrap the body and put the lid in there and then move on. Anyway, that's just an aside. These women, they're looking into the tomb, and then suddenly these two men appear, gleaming like lightning, it says in one version here, a dazzling apparel. Obviously, they're very shiny, and they're terrified understandably.
And these angels, we know, they tell the women, what are you doing? Why are you looking in the tomb? Why are you surprised? Why are you confused? Don't you remember?
Now hold on to that because that's a little phrase that's all through this section. Don't you remember what Jesus told you back in Galilee? Don't you remember? Oh, yes. Now we remember.
And then they run back, don't they? They run back to the disciples or the apostles and the others, whoever, obviously, other disciples of Jesus who are in hiding in fear because Jesus has now died. And then notice what it says in verse 11. But these words seem to them an idle tale and they did not believe them. Well done, disciples.
Top marks. Another version talks about it seemed like nonsense to them. Now there's actually something quite significant going on here in terms of just Luke showing to us that this is really just what happened. You see, the reason, sadly, or part of the reason that they didn't believe these women is because they were women. Not that I'm saying women are untrustworthy, please.
I'd like to get out of here alive. But in that time, women were not considered to be reliable witnesses. They simply weren't. If and so the fact that Luke records this for us, that it was women who were the first, very first witnesses. And it's not just Luke, actually.
You see the same in Matthew and in Mark. The fact that they are recorded as the first witnesses to Jesus' resurrection is only explainable because that's what happened. You see, if a legend had grown up over time, which is what some people think, over time, people just came to wanna believe that Jesus rose from the dead. If a legend grew up over time, the legend would not include women as the first witnesses. If Luke was just writing this because he thought it was a great idea and he just wanted to convince everyone, if it, that is if he was just trying to start a religion or something like that, you wouldn't have women as the first witnesses.
The only reason that you put women in as the first witnesses is because you've got no other option because that's what happened, at least at that time. Again, I'd like to leave here alive. Well, moving on, Peter rushes to the tomb. He sees it's empty, and he's marvelling but confused. Now the bit that we missed, perhaps you're familiar with that, it's the story of the road to Emmaus.
Two men are on the road, clearly disciples. They had been disciples of Jesus. They're in mourning because Jesus has died. They sort of lost hope, and they're heading home. And this man appears, and He walks with them, and He begins to explain the scriptures to them and show them why the Messiah had to die and so on.
And eventually, He goes with them into their house. He breaks bread, and they suddenly realise that it's Jesus, and they're amazed. And they race back to Jerusalem that very night and report everything that happened. Now by the time they get back, we're told in verses we didn't read that Simon Peter has also seen the risen Lord. And yet, as you saw there in verse 36, when Jesus appears among them, they're startled.
Well, I mean, that's understandable. If someone suddenly appeared in this room, we'd be startled, but they're really frightened. And they think not, oh, look. It's the risen Jesus, guys, just like the women told us and just like the guys from on the road to Emmaus told us and just like Peter told us. No.
No. They think it's a spirit. They still don't believe. And Jesus has to say, well, why? Why don't you believe?
He shows them these hands and so on, and they get this kind of odd verse in verse 41 there. They still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling. You get the sense. I mean, you put yourself in their shoes. Jesus had been crucified.
They'd seen Him crucified. They'd seen Him dead. One theory, of course, that people throw up was, or maybe this, it used to be called the swoon theory. Like, that Jesus just kind of fainted, and then He was put in a tomb because the Romans were so stupid, they couldn't tell if someone was dead or fainted. You know?
That seems realistic. And then, you know, He just woke up after a while and came out. I mean, oh, that yeah. But, no, the Romans knew what they were doing, and He was so badly bruised and beaten that He couldn't even carry His own cross as was the custom then. And if He had lain in a tomb having also been crucified and beaten and so on, He would never have made it to the end.
He was dead. He was well and truly dead. And there He is standing before the disciples, and they've heard the stories that He's risen, and they can see the nails, and he can see Him there, and He's saying, touch Me, and you can understand why you would have a mix of disbelief and joy. Right? And you can understand how those two things go together, excitement and, ah, I don't know what to make of this.
And so what does Jesus do? Well, He does the same thing that the angels did with the women. They reminded the women of what Jesus has said. He does the same thing that He did with the two men on the road to Emmaus. He explains to them from the Old Testament why the Messiah had to die and how that said He would rise again, and then He reminds them also of His own words to them saying the very same thing.
And so you see through this account, don't you? Over and over again, Jesus has to remind or the angels have to remind people of what was said, of what He had already taught them. They had forgotten. Now I've always sort of thought, oh, well, that's so, how could it be so silly? I mean, He says it right before He's crucified, and they still don't remember.
What's going on? How come? Well, I guess in fairness, we only get a little bit of what Jesus said, like the potted version. Right? They heard a lot more, so maybe it could've got lost.
But I think the main reason they didn't hear it is because at the time, and in fact, even today, if you go and listen to a Jew, that is someone who still believes in just the Old Testament, the one the sort of person who's still waiting for the Messiah to arrive, there is absolutely zero expectation that the Messiah would come and die. I mean, we can look at the prophecies and it all makes sense to us, but from their perspective, there was zero expectation that the Messiah would be suffering and dying. There was no expectation, therefore, that He would rise again. And in fact, there's a verse in the Old Testament, cursed is he who is hung on a tree. And so when Jesus is crucified, the Pharisees and so on, but probably also the disciples would have thought, well, we got it wrong.
I mean, He was an impressive guy. We loved Him. We were following Him. We thought He was the one, but He's dead. He can't have been the Messiah because the Messiah wasn't supposed to happen to Him.
And while there was an expectation one day of a general resurrection, so one of the discussions you see between Jesus and the Sadducees is whether the resurrection is gonna be a thing because there was a debate between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Some believed in a resurrection, the others didn't. They believed in that, but they did not believe in the resurrection of the Messiah. And so here's the thing. Not only if this is a legend, if this is being made up by the disciples and taught to the world because they just wanted to be significant and important men.
One, they look really stupid all through this story. If I was gonna make up a legend where I was a key player, I would make myself more impressive. Right? Wouldn't you? If you're gonna make up a legend and you were a key player in that legend, wouldn't you kinda make yourself seem a bit sensible and intelligent?
Not that you missed all the signs and had to be shown over and over again. But more, when, if you were making up a legend, and in fact, if you think about most of the conspiracy theories, what they do is they play into kind of deeply held cultural beliefs that are already existing. So most conspiracy theories are based on the idea that the government is corrupt because kind of we already think the government's corrupt. So if you tell a story about the government being corrupt, everyone goes, oh, yeah. That's plausible.
Or the rich people trying to control the world or something. You know, everyone goes, oh, yeah. That's plausible. You would not come up with a story like this when there was no cultural backing for it, if you like. There's no cultural story.
There's no cultural expectation that there's gonna be a Messiah who dies and rises again. In fact, it's so unusual that even though Jesus says to them that's what's gonna happen, they don't hear it. If you're gonna make this up, you'd root it in something that people kinda already believed, but this is totally new. This is totally out of the box. This is completely out of their thinking, and you would have had to work very, very hard to write to convince people of this if you were just making it up because they would have said, no.
That's nonsense. The only reason that you would write this story is if this is what actually happened. You see? Because nobody was expecting this. Now, right at the end there, notice what Jesus says to the disciples before He goes to heaven.
Verse 46. Thus, is written that the Christ should suffer on the third day, rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I am sending the promise of My father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Now we're given a bit more detail.
This is a very summarised version of what happened to Jesus after His resurrection. We're giving a little bit more detail in some of the other gospels and in Acts, which Luke also wrote. But the point is this, Jesus says to these men, I've risen, and now your job is going to be you're My witnesses. Your job is to take the gospel message to the world. You're supposed to go and tell them about salvation through My name, that I have died for the forgiveness of sins, and I've risen for the guarantee of new life, and you have to go and preach that.
And if you read Acts, that's exactly what they do. If you go into Acts, what do you see of these men? You see them proclaiming the gospel. You see them preaching the resurrection. You see people turning in faith to Christ.
But here's the thing. They do that in the face of persecution. Really early on in Acts, they get threatened with beating. In fact, they get flogged, and they just go right on preaching the gospel. Now why is that surprising?
Well, what happened to these guys just a few chapters before this? What happened when Judas turned up with the soldiers? They fled. They were cowards. They just ran.
And yet, only thirty, forty, fifty, sixty days later, these guys are willing to be beaten, imprisoned, and for some of them, eventually crucified and burnt at the stake because they would not deny Jesus, and they insisted on preaching the gospel. How does that happen? How did people get so transformed? Well, part of the answer is at the end there. Jesus says He's gonna send the promise of His father.
He's talking about the Holy Spirit. But the other answer is this. Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. That's how that makes sense.
No one would do that unless Jesus was actually alive. Otherwise, their whole life makes no sense whatsoever. Their preaching makes no sense whatsoever. If it was all just made up as soon as the hardship came, they would just wanna drop it and say, no. This is too much.
Let's now maybe there was one who did that. You know, well, he's just a lunatic, but there's a whole crowd of them, not just the 12 disciples, but a whole group of them. In fact, Christians all over. Why? Because Jesus is alive.
And so you see, Luke isn't just telling us Jesus is risen. He's making sure that when we come here and we read about it, we know for sure that Jesus is alive. Now there's lots of other ways that we could talk about to prove that, but the very way he records it, we know he's telling us what happened. And friends, because Jesus is alive, so many things are true because we can have confidence that Jesus is alive. There's so many things that are true.
I think one of the other things that has happened since COVID, I have lots of people these days come up to me at church and just say, the world seems a very uncertain place at the moment. They're worried about the future. They're worried about wars. They're worried about our own government. They're worried about overseas.
They're just it just all seems strange. Some people really feel like we're at a turning point. Now whether that's true or not, there might just be social media hyping everything up. That could that's possible. But because Jesus is alive, whatever happens this year, whatever happens in ten years' time, whatever happens in fifty years' time, whatever hardships befall us, whatever failures we make, there will be a new beginning because Jesus is alive.
A brand new beginning, a complete reset if you like. Because Jesus rose everything about our future that He said is true. Because He's alive, we know that everything He said He was gonna do, He will do. He will return. There will be a new heavens and a new earth.
And even if we die before He returns, we will live again. John hobbled up here on his crutches this morning, and I saw someone else with crutches. You know, don't I know where they've gone, there was someone, at least one other person. Well, they're a temporary measure. They're a temporary whatever you have, whatever ails you, whatever diseases haunt you and cause you grief, whatever things might come to you will be gone because Jesus is alive.
Your health is reset. You'll be given an imperishable body. It's not just that you'll be made better only to deteriorate again. No. No.
You'll be better forever. All the things that vex you, all the troubles that worry you, the sin that corrupts you will be gone. You'll be a new person. Not the same you in a sense of your personality and your gifts and so on, I would think, but perfect. All your worries and fears, gone.
You will live in safety and security without evil, without sickness, without death, without theft, ruled over by the glorious king who died for His people. The king who is right there with you, living with you, seen by you. And so because Jesus is alive, we are people who walk this world looking forward. We are not overcome by the troubles in this world. We are people who walk looking forward.
We are able to suffer loss for one day that will be undone. Jesus is our great reward. We are able to suffer sickness for one day we will be made well. We were able to suffer rejection because we will live with Him side by side forever. We are able to go through death even, for we will be made alive, never to die.
And we can live with confidence because we don't just suspect He might be alive. We didn't just hear that maybe there's Jesus is no, no. We know He is alive. He is alive. Up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph over His foes.
He arose the victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose. Hallelujah. Christ arose. Let's pray.
Our father in heaven, we thank You so much that after Jesus suffered and died for our sins, He completely paid our debt to You. You did not leave Him in the grave, but He arose. And because of that, we look forward with great hope. We thank You that You caused Luke and Matthew and John and Mark and Paul to write down for us what happened so that we know He is alive. So that we can look forward with hope that whatever troubles befall us, whatever sickness grips us, that even if we face death, we too will rise.
All things will be made new, and we will live with You forever in glory. We thank You that we live as people of hope because Jesus rose again. We praise You, our father God, that You made that happen. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.