Sermon Series | Easter Sunday | April 12, 2020
/Don’t be Afraid to Go In!
Easter Sunrise
John 20:1-18
The 12th of April 2020
Luther Chapel, Kimuka, Kenya
Sermon Text:
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to all believers in Christ.
Our Gospel reading began:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
(John 20:1-2).
The day started with Mary Magdalene going to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark and the stone was already gone. This large stone was placed there by Pontius Pilate and the Pharisees to seal the tomb so that no one could claim that Jesus kept His promise of rising again on the Third Day because according to them, “the last fraud will be worse than the first.” (Matthew 27:64)
They could not allow that to happen!
No one is allowed to believe that Jesus is Risen!
Then who moved the stone?
When did it happen?
There is already some worry or doubt because the text clearly says that Mary went when it was still dark.
The sun had not risen yet. Does this mean God lied?
Did He take a short cut and rise before Sunday?
No! Not at all! The problem is with our thinking.
Just as human beings think they will save the whole world from Coronavirus and global warming, we think we know all things.
My dear brothers and sisters, stop fearing and remember the first page of the Bible.
When does the day start? “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Ge 1:5).
When you go to sleep is when God starts His work!
By the time Mary Magdalene got to the tomb, the first day of the week was already half over.
Jesus had been parading around in Hell proclaiming victory over sin, death, and the Devil before she or we ever woke up!
But she was afraid to go in just as many people are afraid to go into churches today.
The government has declared an edict and no one shall break it under penalty of severe fines and imprisonment.
Do not forget the history of the Bible because when we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it!
How fitting is it that the appointed reading from the Old Testament for Holy Saturday was from Daniel 6:
Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. (Daniel 6:6-7).
The Jews who were in captivity in Persia/Iran, were on lockdown for 30 days.
30 days they could not worship anyone except the government.
All over the world today many people are under a similar lockdown commanded by their governments.
They must obey or else face the penalty!
So what did Daniel do?
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. (Da 6:10).
Because Daniel was faithful to God, did this mean he escaped punishment? No. To the contrary history records:
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.
The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.(Da 6:16–17).
A large stone was also placed over his “tomb” and it was sealed.
Are you ready for this? Shall we bow down to the government?
Shall we fear death?
The first commandment is, You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things!
The strange thing about this all is that, even though there is a lockdown, the spread of Corona might slowdown but death will not be stopped.
It still comes to all people.
The government has not conquered death
But JESUS HAS!
Remember even the apostles were threatened by the authorities not to preach publicly: (Acts 5)
“We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Ac 5:28–32).
The apostles chose to obey God rather than man because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, no one comes to the Father in heaven, except through Jesus!
They didn’t have the foolish hope to live forever on earth, their focus was on heaven.
Sometimes God delivered them from earthly death and if God chooses to do that, it is because He still has work for you to do on earth.
Sometimes the apostles were martyred for preaching the Gospel, and if they were, then they received the Crown of Eternal Life and were delivered to Heaven!
In the case of the OT story with Daniel, King Darius ran to Daniel’s tomb, the lions’ den, early in the morning to remove the stone and Daniel walked out unharmed.
Jesus was his refuge and strength and his “resurrection” from the dead was a testimony to Darius and all Persia that the True God was the one that Daniel preached about, Jesus.
Then Darius
“commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for He is the living God, enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth,
He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” (Da 6:24–27).
Back to our Gospel reading.
When it was still dark and when Mary was in great fear because the stone was rolled away, she ran back to town and told Peter and John, who ran to the tomb and they found it empty but they didn’t know what that meant:
for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. (Jn 20:9).
Jesus wasn’t eaten by the lions.
Instead He swallowed up death!
But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping as many people do today.
So many are fearing that death is the end.
When Jesus cried out, “Tetelestai/The End”, it did not mean that He was finished but that death was finished.
Seeing Mary crying,
“Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”(Jn 20:15).
All Jesus had to say to her was her name, “Mary” and then her heart and soul were comforted.
Her Savior lives!
Your Savior lives and He calls you by name!
Paul declares:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Co 15:20–22).
We no longer need to fear going into the tomb or to church.
Death is not the end but it is the portal, it is the door we go through from this fallen world with all its threats but we pass through it to the eternal joys in paradise.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Ps 16:9–11).
AMEN!!!
Now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.
