Easter - 2024
Growing up, my family had a tradition in which the Easter Bunny had hidden our Easter Basket filled with candy around the house, and we had to find it. Sometimes, the baskets were hidden so well that I was certain The Easter Bunny had forgotten about me.
Every Easter, Kristy hides Easter Eggs in the yard, and the girls search for plastic eggs filled with money, candies, and jellybeans.
Can you imagine explaining Easter egg hunts to someone who's never heard of them before? 'So, we celebrate the resurrection... by hiding chocolate eggs... laid by a bunny? Perspective can make our traditions seem a bit quirky. Have you ever noticed that we all respond differently to events?
For instance, if your wife gets a speeding ticket, some husbands will get mad, and some of you will laugh at her. Wives, If your husband stubs his toe or steps on a Lego in the middle of the night, some wives will laugh, others will hide their giggle, and some won’t wake up. We have different responses to almost everything, including the most incredible event in history, the resurrection of Jesus. Some people respond with belief. Some people respond with disbelief. Some people may not care one way or another.
Today, we celebrate Easter, and I think people respond to the resurrection of Jesus the exact same way. Some refuse to believe. Some have doubts. Some fully believe. That is precisely how it was at the time of the resurrection. Many of the followers of Jesus did not believe he had risen from the dead. Even after they talked with him, they still struggled to believe he was actually alive. Today, we will examine Luke 24 and discover how those who did not believe Jesus had risen came to the conclusion that he was indeed alive.
We will do that because you may relate to the people who could not believe that Jesus was alive, and I want to help you move from unbelief or ambivalence to belief and faith in Jesus. So, Let’s read about the events that happened three days after Jesus had been killed on the cross and buried in a tomb.
Luke 24:1-11 (NLT2)
1 But very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. 5 The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” 8 Then they remembered that he had said this. 9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. 11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.
“Very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but getting anywhere very early on a Sunday is miraculous in itself, especially if you have kids. It makes sense to me that if anybody ever wanted Jesus to be alive – it would have been the men who followed him for three years of their lives. When somebody you love dies tragically and suddenly, you miss them and want them to be alive. The disciples aren’t any different. This wasn’t a long, drawn-out battle with cancer or disease. One moment, Jesus was healthy and enjoying dinner with his closest friends; the next moment, he was arrested and murdered. They saw him work miracles and change lives. They ate with him, learned from him, and saw the hope he brought to people.
I am sure they wanted Jesus to be alive more than anybody. Yet,
THE DISCIPLES REFUSED TO BELIEVE.
The word Luke used in verse 11 that describes where the friends of Jesus were on their journey to belief was:
Apisteo (aw pis tay o:) to have no belief, to disbelieve
The disciple's first response was not “Hurray! He is alive!”
Their first response was, “No way! That’s not possible!”
They thought the women were nuts! They refused to believe Jesus was alive. That may be where you are today.
You believe Jesus existed, that he did good things, and that you may even appreciate what he taught about forgiving others, loving those who do not deserve it, and the kindness and compassion he showed. You believe that he was put to death by execution on the cross…but like the disciple’s early response, you refuse to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
It is important to note that the disciples changed. Their minds were changed. They went from “refusing to believe” to fully surrendering to Jesus.
How did they get there?
Well, between verses 12 and 36, Jesus made a few special appearances.
Jesus appeared to a couple of men walking down a road and talked with them.
Then he appeared to Peter.
Then he appeared to his disciples to show them the nails in his hands and feet.
And the disciples got together, and they were talking about it. Jesus appeared to me, me too! He showed us his hands and feet…We had an entire conversation with him…
Luke 24:36-41 shows us that the disciples moved from refusing to believe that Jesus was alive…they conceded a little ground…
And now…
THE DISCIPLES DESIRED TO BELIEVE (v. 38, 41)
Luke 24:36-41A (NLT2)
36 And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 37 But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost! 38 “Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why are your hearts filled with doubt? 39 Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.” 40 As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder…
When Jesus said, “Why are your hearts filled with doubt?” He used the word:
Dialogismos (dē-ä-lo-gē-smoss): the thinking of a man deliberating with himself. A deliberating, questioning about what is true. Hesitation, doubting, disputing, arguing.
They desired to believe. They made eye contact with Jesus. They saw the wounds on his hands and feet. They wanted to believe, but they were torn by what they saw happened to Jesus at the cross. Their resistance to embrace the TRUTH of Jesus being alive reinforces the suffering and brutality of the cross. Before Jesus was arrested in the Garden, he had been pleading with God to find another way to bring forgiveness to mankind rather than face the brutality of the cross.
Luke 22:42 (NLT2)
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
We do not understand the phrase “cup of suffering” the way the Jewish people did back then. In the Old Testament, “the cup” is often used as a metaphor for the wrath of God.
Isaiah 51:17 (NLT)
17 Wake up, wake up, O Jerusalem! You have drunk the cup of the LORD’s fury. You have drunk the cup of terror, tipping out its last drops.
Jeremiah 25:15 (NLT)15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.
Habakkuk 2:16 (NLT)
16 But soon it will be your turn to be disgraced. Come, drink, and be exposed! Drink from the cup of the LORD’s judgment, and all your glory will be turned to shame.
Isaiah called it a cup of terror. Jeremiah called it a cup filled to the brim with God’s anger. Habakkuk called it a cup of the Lord’s Judgement.
Throughout the Bible, we see glimpses of God’s Wrath:
God’s Anger over sin is seen in the great flood that destroyed the earth…
God’s wrath destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.
God’s wrath is seen in the 10 Plagues upon Egypt.
It was not the physical agony of the beatings, the scourging, and the crucifixion that Jesus dreaded. It was the spiritual agony He would experience as he drank every last drop of God’s wrath that we deserved.
The Disciples watched the physical brutality of the cross. They watched the flesh ripped from his back through the scourging. They heard his final words and watched him breathe his final breath. They saw his dead body. They knew NO MAN was going to come back from that.
If you have heard the message that Jesus is ALIVE over and over yet walk away with doubt, understand that the very same men followed Jesus! Jesus stood in the same room. They made eye contact with Jesus, yet they STILL had doubts! They wanted to believe, but they just couldn't because of what they had already seen.
Is that you? Maybe you really would like to believe that Jesus is alive – but because of the troubles, difficulties, and emptiness you have experienced in this world, you struggle with accepting. If the disciples who walked and talked with Jesus after he was resurrected struggled with believing – it is understandable that 2,000 years later, men and women struggle with fully believing in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Let’s look one more time in Luke 24, and we will discover that…
THE DISCIPLES FULLY BELIEVED, AND THEIR LIVES WERE CHANGED
Luke 24:45-47 (NLT2)
45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. 47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’
What did it take for these men to have faith? The same thing still required today. For us to believe in JESUS as SAVIOR – God must open our minds to believe. If you have repeatedly heard about Jesus’ death and resurrection yet still have doubts or think, “So what? That is not going to change anything about my life...”
I want you to understand why you think that way. The Apostle Paul tells us why some people do not believe:
2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT2)
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ...
So, if you desire to believe, ask God to open your mind to believe. Ask God to remove the blindfold preventing you from becoming a follower of Jesus. You can ask him right now.
“God, please remove the blindfold on my mind. If Jesus did rise from the dead, that changes everything. I would like to believe, but I need you to open my mind.”
Take a moment right now. In your own words, say, “ God, open my mind to understand Jesus.”
Then, in verse 46, Jesus taught them that the Savior of the World would have to suffer and die. God opened their minds, and they understood now that Jesus was the Savior who endured the “cup of suffering for all people” so that mankind might never have to experience God’s wrath again.
They understood the words that Jesus told them in John 3:16:
John 3:16 (NLT2)
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Maybe at this moment, God has opened your mind to understand Jesus. Maybe something has clicked, and you understand how much God loves you. In verse 47, Jesus said, “There is forgiveness of sin for all who repent.”
The word that Jesus used for “repent” communicates a shift or change in thinking. The Disciples SHIFTED their thoughts about Jesus. This was the moment they put their DISBELIEF behind them—they chose to believe that Jesus was alive and that he had died for their sins, and they fully believed by surrendering their lives to him through repentance.
To repent – you, too, must have that SHIFT in your thinking. If you would like to repent, be forgiven for your sins, and become a follower of Jesus today, pray this with me:
God,
I believe that Jesus suffered for my disobedience on the cross and died.
I believe he rose from the dead; he is now with you in Heaven
and will return to earth one day.
I surrender my life to you as my Savior.
Thank you for forgiving my sin and changing my life.
In Jesus name, Amen.