Our story begins:
Down in the deepest darkness –
Down in the big, black, ugly deep, deep hole –
Down in the stinking horror of the throne room of Satan.
All of the demons of hell had been called together to worship the devil.
Why? Because Jesus Christ, the son of God, was dead. He had died on the cross.
The Devil's Biggest Blunder
The devil sat back in his wicked glee. At last, he had done it. At last, he had defeated God. “I have conquered the son of God,” he shouted. “I have won! I am greater than God! Now, every knee must bow and declare that I am the greatest! I have killed the son of God!”
For three days Satan danced and pranced and cursed and made the demons bow down and worship him. But what Satan didn’t know was that on that first day, and on the second day, and on the third day, the blood of Jesus Christ was ascending to the throne of Jehovah god.
The Secret Power In the Blood of the Lamb
That blood, the blood of an innocent lamb, slain for the sins of all men, was ascending to the throne of God to make atonement, to make up for all the sins of all men, for all time.
The pattern for the atonement was given to Moses and Aaron in the Old Testament. That pattern said that the blood from the sacrificial lamb was to be caught in a basin.
On the first Passover when Israel was delivered from the bondage of Egypt, we see the blood of the sacrificial lamb caught in a basin. The blood was then applied to the top of the door casing, and the door posts of each home. That night, the angel of death passed over all the homes. Those homes which were covered by the blood of the sacrificial lamb were safe. But the homes of the Egyptians lost their eldest sons when the death angel passed over.
Ever since then, Israel has understood what it means to be “under the blood” of the sacrificial lamb.
On that day, when Jesus was slain, the hands of Jehovah God, so to speak, reached down on that cross and caught the blood of Jesus. That blood was rising to the throne room of the Father. There it was being presented as an everlasting, once and for all, atonement for the sins of the world.
Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, had been sacrificed. That blood has to be applied to the door of every human heart in order to cleanse it from sin and remove from it the curse of the second death – eternal separation from God.
Every man, woman and child must remember the warning Moses gave to the people: if we leave the covering of that blood, we will suffer the same fate as the Egyptians.
The Blood of the Perfect Lamb ascended to the throne of God. On the third day Lord God sent the message down through the corridors of the universe: “I receive the blood of my Son!”
Jesus: The Victor
On the third day, this message from God echoed from one end of God’s creation to the other. As that message rang out, something began to happen in the throne room of hell. The victory orgy, the wild, uncontrolled merrymaking of the demons, was in full swing.
A Light began to flicker in the throne room of hell. That Light began to get brighter and brighter, until it filled the whole place where Satan and his demons were gathered.
Those demons began to scream and cry out like they had never done before because they cannot stand light. Their deeds are evil, and evil hides in darkness.
The devil came and bowed before that Light. Because, that Light was the Son of God. Because on the third day, the devil could not hold him! The grave could not keep him! Death could not swallow him up. On the third day, He arose, and He walked down into the throne room of the enemy.
Jesus Has Set Us Free
Why? Because it is written:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
The devil had no choice but to come before Jesus and bow before Him. He was pulled by a power he could not resist. He had to bow before a Name that was above every name in heaven, and earth, and under the earth. He could not resist. He was compelled.
Jesus spoke and said, “I have not come to bind you now, but to fulfill the word of my Father to give to the church yet to be born the victory over all the power of the enemy. And you must suffer continuous defeat for I am giving to man the power of attorney to use My Name to attack and defeat you at every turn.”
Then, with one mighty sweep of victory, the Lord Jesus reached to the powers of evil and took from the devil the keys of the kingdom that the devil had stolen.
Then He arose and as He arose His heel kicked the side of Satan’s face – and Satan carries a mortal wound on his face.
Jesus Christ arose from the grave, having opened the prison doors and set the captives free.
Our Liberty In Christ Jesus
Today, I declare to you that the sacrifice of Jesus has been accepted in the throne room of God!
I declare to you that the power of the enemy has been broken! As long as you stand under the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, you have behind you all the authority of God, and all the powers of hell cannot prevail against you! Victory, and life everlasting and a new life as God’s very own children, await you!
An Empty Tomb
Now the scene changes to a garden tomb. It is still dark…
Through the deserted streets of Jerusalem three men are hurrying, almost running towards the residence of the High Priest.
In the courtyard a slave lifts a torch to see their faces…”See Caiaphas now? At this hour? Impossible…You will have to wait until the dawn at least.”
An hour and a half later the three men report to Caiaphas:
“The tomb is empty! The tomb you sent us to guard is empty! The Nazarene’s body is gone!”
Caiaphas is at first puzzled, then angry, then thoughtful…
The men had no explanation. Repeated questioning could not shake their story…
No!– We didn’t go to sleep… “There was this strange rumbling in the garden…The ground shook! Then we saw this strange man. If it was a man… We couldn’t tell for sure. It was like lightning in the shape of a man…its clothes were white as snow…
“We were terrified. Our legs gave way, and we fell to the ground. Then this thing, this man, went right up to the stone in front of the tomb and rolled it back, all by himself!”
“Just then some women came up…The strange man spoke to them…He told them the Nazarene wasn’t there…That He had risen from the dead.”
“The women looked in the tomb…it was empty! They hurried off, and the strange man just disappeared…We got up and came to you as fast as we could.”
This story was very disturbing to Caiaphas. Quickly he called the Elders together. He had the guards repeat their story. The Elders talked it over. They didn’t know what really happened. But they did know they had better do some damage control. If word ever got out about what the guards said they saw, it would mean big trouble. They decided to pay off the guards to keep them quiet.
“Your story,” they said, “must be that his disciples came after dark and stole him away while you were asleep. If by any chance this reaches the governor’s ears, we will put it right with him and see that you do not suffer for it.”
So, the guards took the money and obeyed the instructions. The story was spread and is current among the Jews to this day.
The Despair of the Disciples
Meanwhile…Despair and disillusionment filled Simon Peter’s heart…despair over his shameful denial of even knowing Jesus…disillusionment over what happened to Jesus.
Simon Peter and the others had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel…Now all hope was gone. Jesus was DEAD…Hailed as King on Sunday…killed like a common thief on Friday.
The women fled quickly from the tomb…They didn’t know what was going on…The shining man scared them. One of the women, Mary Magdalene, outran the other women and came to Simon Peter and John.
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him,” she cried.
The men were shocked. Wasn’t it enough that they had crucified Him? Did they have to steal His body too?
Peter and John started running. John outran Peter but stopped at the door. He looked inside and noticed the linen cloths lying there but he did not go in himself.
Hard on his heels came Simon Peter and went straight into the tomb. He noticed that the linen cloths were lying there, and that the handkerchief, which had been round Jesus’ head, was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself, a little way apart.
Then John came inside as well, saw what had happened and believed.
Believed? What did they believe? They believed only that the tomb was empty. Mary stood just outside the tomb. She was crying. As she cried, she looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white who sat, one at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had lain.
Mary Believes
The angels spoke to her. “Why are you crying?” they asked.
“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him!” she said.
Then she turned and noticed Jesus standing there, without realizing at first that it was Jesus.
“Why are you crying?” said Jesus to her. “Who are you looking for?”
She, supposing that he was the gardener, said, “Oh, sir, if you have carried him away, please tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” At this she turned round and said to him, “Master!”
No!” said Jesus, do not hold me now. I have not yet gone up to my Father, and your Father. To my God and your God.”
Mary had come prepared weep…Now she could worship…
She had come prepared to see Him lying in the tomb…She found Him walking in newness of resurrected life.
Mary Magdala went off to the disciples, with the news, “I have seen the Lord!” but they did not believe it.
Joy Restored
It was evening now on that first day of the week. The events of the day had left the disciples bewildered. They wanted to believe that Jesus was risen. But people don’t rise from the dead. And now they were afraid the women were becoming delirious from grief. The doors were locked for fear of the Jews. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jesus stood right in the middle of them!
“Peace be with you!” He said.
Then He showed them his hands and his side…And when they realized that He was really real they were overjoyed.
We could stop the Easter story at this point, like many are inclined to do. Or we could tell of all the different people who actually saw the Resurrected Jesus…
He was seen by Peter, then seen by the twelve, then seen by over 500 simultaneously, then seen by James, then seen by all the messengers, and last of all seen by Paul.
But this isn’t the place to stop, either. That would be wrong! There is more to the story.
The Story of George Thomas
There once was a man named George Thomas, a pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage and set it by the pulpit. Several eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak.
“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.
I stopped the lad and asked, “What you got there son?”
“Just some old birds,” came the reply.
“What are you gonna do with them?” I asked.
“Take ’em home and have fun with ’em,” he answered.
“I’m gonna tease ’em and pull out their feathers to make ’em fight. I’m gonna have a real good time.”
“But you’ll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?”
“Oh, I got some cats,” said the little boy. “They like birds. I’ll take’ em to them.”
The pastor was silent for a moment. “How much do you want for those birds, son?”
“Huh??!!! Why? You don’t want them birds, mister. They’re just plain old field birds. They don’t sing -they ain’t even pretty!”
“How much?” the pastor asked again.
The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, “$10?”
The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten-dollar bill. He placed it in the boy’s hand. In a flash, the boy was gone.
The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door and by softly tapping the bars, he persuaded the birds out, setting them free.
Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit and then the pastor began to tell this story.
One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting.
“Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn’t resist. Got ‘em all!”
“What are you going to do with them?” Jesus asked.
Satan replied, “Oh, I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I’m gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I’m really gonna have fun!”
“And what will you do when you get done with them?” Jesus asked.
“Oh, I’ll kill ’em,” Satan glared proudly.
“How much do you want for them?” Jesus asked.
“Oh, you don’t want those people. They ain’t no good. Why, you’ll take them, and they’ll just hate you. They’ll spit on you, curse you and kill you! You don’t want those people!”
“How much?” He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered. “All your tears, and all your blood.”
Jesus said, “DONE!”
Then He paid the price.
The pastor picked up the cage he opened the door, and he walked from the pulpit.
The story does not end there. Jesus reassured his disciples and proved to them that He was really real by letting them feel his hands and the hole in His side, and by eating food. But there was a job to be done.
Jesus said to them again: “Yes, Peace be with you! Just as the Father Sent me, so I am going to send you.”
That is the rest of the story. The resurrection story does not end with an empty tomb.
It ends with a commissioning service. The final words of the Easter story are not, “Hallelujah, Christ is risen!”
The final words of the Easter story are, “Here am I Lord. Send me.”
We Are Called To Jesus With Others
This morning you have great news to tell. All around you are needy people. People who feel defeated by life, people with great physical and emotional and material needs. People who are looking for meaning to life, meaning to their own lives.
You have wonderful, good news to tell them. They are loved! They aren’t nobodies. They have a Father who is the King. They are King’s Kids. All the resources of the Father are here to help them.
You have been commissioned to go and tell.
So, GO!
I Corinthians 15:3-4, I Peter 2:24, I Peter 3:18-20, Ephesians 4:8-10
