EASTER SUNDAY
JESUS, OUR SAVIOR AND LORD
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 15, 2001
JOHN 20:1-19
Last summer, my wife Barb and I were in the city of Jerusalem. It was a hot day, and we were walking around Zion Square. The temperature was more than 90 degrees. We were looking for something cold to drink. We were actually looking for an iced latte, which is not easy to find in Israel. We noticed across the street there was a memorial, and the memorial was called “Talitha Cumi.” Those words surprised me because they were not Hebrew words and they were not Arabic words. They were Aramaic. Aramaic was the common language of the Jews in the days of Christ.
My wife and I went across the street to look at this “Talitha Cumi” memorial. There was a plaque. On the plaque, there was an inscription. The plaque said that there once was on this site a hospital and an orphanage, and that the hospital and orphanage had been called Talitha Cumi, and that it had sought to serve the needs of abandoned little girls in Israel.”
That’s all the plaque said, but I knew there was more to the story. I knew that the hospital and the orphanage had surely been Christian, that the founders had tried to take the love of Jesus Christ to little girls in Israel, because the words ‘‘Talitha cumi” are from the New Testament. They’re from Mark’s Gospel, the 5th chapter, and the 41st verse. It was Jesus who spoke those words, ‘‘Talitha cumi.” Jesus spoke those words as He stood over the dead body of a 12-year-old girl. Jesus spoke those words as He was surrounded by grieving family members and loved ones who were destitute at the loss of their little girl. Jesus stood over that dead body, and Jesus said, ‘‘Talitha cumi”—“little girl, arise.” By the power of the Son of God, that little girl was resurrected from the dead.
This was not the only time that Jesus raised the dead. The Bible tells us that Jesus raised from the dead the widow’s son of the village of Nain. The Bible tells us that Jesus raised from the dead Lazarus of Bethany. It was in Bethany where Jesus made the incredible statement, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.” You see, Jesus Christ is the hope of the world, and He is our hope today as we are gathered here this Easter morning at Fiddler’s Green.
I read recently the story of a Sunday school teacher who was talking to her first grade class about the omnipresence of God. She was trying to explain this to first graders. She said, “Jesus is everywhere.” She said, “Jesus is outside of the building. He’s out in the parking lot. Jesus is inside the building. He’s in the hallways. Jesus is right here in this classroom with us.” Well, the first graders looked at each other and they looked around the room. They didn’t understand. A little boy raised his hand, and he said, “Well, I know one place that Jesus isn’t.”
The teacher said, “Well, where’s that?” This little boy said, “He isn’t in the tomb!” And that’s true! Jesus isn’t in the tomb! He isn’t in the grave, and that’s why we’re here today. He is risen and He’s alive and He is the hope of the world.
But, you see, you must respond to Him. Your future depends on it. You must respond to Him. Your destiny in eternity depends on this. You must respond to Him. The Bible tells us that we must respond in two ways. First of all, the Bible tells us, we must receive Him as Savior. We must accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Greek word for Savior is the word soter. This word is used many times in the Bible as a title for Christ. Jesus Christ is ho soter. He is “the Savior.” For this He was born. For this He came into the world, that He might save us from sin and from death.
The year was 326 AD. That’s when a woman named Helena made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She was 71 years old, and she was not a normal woman. Historians tell us that Helena had been the Empress of Rome. Helena was the mother of Constantine I, known to history as Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor.
Eusebius, church historian who was a friend of the Imperial Family, tells us of her pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He tells us that Helena went to Jerusalem because she had accepted Christ as her Savior. She wanted to walk where Jesus walked. Eusebius tells us that she also was looking for a respite from her grief because her favorite grandson, Crispis, had just died. She tells us that Constantine, her son, had also sent her to Jerusalem that she might pick places for him to build Christian churches. Eusebius also tells us that Helena went to Jerusalem as an amateur archeologist seeking to find the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre.
When she arrived in Jerusalem in 326, she began to ask Christians where Christ’s body had been placed. “Where is the garden and the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea? Where is the Holy Sepulchre located?” She always received the same answer. They said, “Well, our parents and our parents’ parents told us that it was at this one site here, but that site is buried and it’s beneath the earth. Now the Romans and the Greeks have built a temple there.” There was a temple there; the Temple of Aphrodite, used by both Greeks and Romans. Helena commanded that the temple be torn down, and then they began an archeological dig.
Beneath the earth, they found what had once been a garden, and they found a tomb, a sepulchre, which they believed to be the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre. It’s a historical fact that on that site the Roman Emperor Constantine then built a Christian Church. Ultimately the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on that site, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands there today. All of that is told by Eusebius, the great church historian.
But there are other sources of information regarding the visit of Helena to Jerusalem. We can read the writings of Ambrose of Milan. We can read the writings of Ciro of Jerusalem, and we can read the writings of the historian Hermias Sozomenos. They all tell us that when she went down into that archeological dig, and when she entered the Holy Sepulchre, it was not completely empty. They tell us that she found there three crosses, the cross of Christ and the two crosses upon which the thieves had been crucified. They tell us that she also found in that sepulchre the tri-lingual inscription of Pontius Pilate that had been nailed to the cross.
Now, of course, we leave it to historians to debate the authenticity of these records. There are questions. It’s curious that Eusebius himself doesn’t describe this discovery. It’s curious that the Roman Emperor Constantine, in his records of holy relics found in the Holy Land, does not mention this discovery of the three crosses and the tri-lingual inscription. It is true that the Roman Empire rarely left crosses just lying around. They stockpiled them for future use because there were other people they would want to crucify. It is also thought to be unlikely that early Christians would have kept the crosses of the two thieves in the Holy Sepulchre. Nevertheless, these records from Hermias Sozomenos and from Ambrose of Milan and Ciro of Jerusalem are regarded as authentic by the Roman Catholic Church and by all the Orthodox Churches.
Now, we may not know in this age of the world whether Helena really found those things in the grave, but we do know this: it’s appropriate when you think of the empty tomb to also think of the cross because, you see, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are forever joined. They’re all part of the mission of Christ to be the Savior, ho soter, of the world. Jesus Christ went to the cross for you. It is a fact of history. And He went to the cross for me. He died in our place, In substitutionary atonement, He bore my sin. He bore your sin upon Himself, that we might find repentance and salvation and forgiveness if we would come to Him. This is the heart of the gospel of Christ, that He died in our place.
We are told in Isaiah, chapter 53, that “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our inequities. Upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole. By His stripes, we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned each one to his own way. The Lord has laid upon Him the inequity of us all.”
The Apostle Peter wrote, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on a tree.” In substitutionary atonement, He died for us. From that cross, He shouted out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He uttered that cry because He bore the sin of the world, and He felt the separation from God that sin brings, as the sin of the world was vested upon Him. As He breathed His last from the cross, He cried out, “Tetelestai,” which means “it is finished,” but tetelestai was the word that was stamped on certificates of debt when the debt had been paid, when the debt had been paid in full. “It is finished.: It is paid in full.
You see, on the cross, Christ paid in full your debt and my debt, and we can come to Him and we can receive Him as Savior. He rose from the dead. He offers victory over sin and death. He is ho soter, the Savior. I was 5 years old when I knelt at my mother’s side in the livingroom of our house and I asked Jesus to be my Savior. That was 50 years ago. I knew then what I know now. I need a Savior, and you need a Savior too. We’re going to give you a chance to accept Christ as your Savior today and secure your future for all eternity.
Well, the second thing that we must do to in response to Christ is we must receive Him as Lord. It’s not enough to accept Him as Savior. We must also accept Him as Lord. The Greek word for Lord in the Bible is the word kurios. This word is used literally hundreds of times to describe the authority of Jesus Christ. When we look at this word contextually as it’s used in the scriptures, it is a divine title. He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Now, in the book of Romans, the 13th chapter, the Bible tells us that as Christians we are to be subject to the governing authorities. In that same chapter, the Bible tells us that God has ordained that earthly governments exist for the purpose of rewarding good and deterring evil on the earth. But the Bible makes it clear that there are no earthly governments that have divine authority. No earthly governments have divine authority.
If you’ve read history, you have heard of the doctrine of the divine right of kings. This doctrine has been used and abused throughout history. It was most popular in the 1600s in England and in France, in England during the reign of the Stuarts and in France during the reign of King Louis XIV. In accordance with the doctrine of the divine right of kings, these governments in England and France declared that they held their authority from God and that their authority was divine and that the people couldn’t question it. The people had to submit without reservation and without exception. Their authority was divine and therefore absolute.
Ultimately, the French Revolution was fought because of this doctrine of the divine right of kings. The leaders of the French Revolution believed that earthly governments received their authority from the people, from the consent and the consensus of the people.
Most of us here at Fiddler’s Green this morning would agree with that. Most people in the western world would agree with that. Certainly most people here in America would agree with that. As Christians, we can agree with that. But we also acknowledge as Christians that God is sovereign, that before Him kings and kingdoms rise and fall, and that while God has given divine authority to no earthly government, God has given divine authority to a heavenly government. That heavenly government is the government of Christ. It is the government over which He is Lord. The Bible calls that government the kingdom of heaven. The Bible calls that government the kingdom of God. The Bible calls that government the kingdom of Christ. This is the government of which Christ spoke when He said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
This is the government to which Christ referred when He said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” His kingdom has invaded this world. He invites all people, men and women the world over, to embrace Him as Lord. He said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I tell you to do? He who hears My words and does them, I’ll tell you what he is like. He’s like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain fell and the winds blew and the floods came, and the house stood firm, for it was founded on the rock. He who hears My words and does not do them, I’ll tell you what he is like. He is like a fool who built his house on sinking sand. The rains fell and the winds blew and the floods came and the house fell down, and great was the destruction of it.” You must receive Him as Lord if your future would be secure.
You know, when Helena entered the Holy Sepulchre in the year 326, it is said by some that she found the crosses and that she also found the tri-lingual inscription of Pontius Pilate. It was inscribed in Greek, in Latin, and in Hebrew. It said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” This inscription was nailed to the cross, and it was placed there in mockery. There are some people who mock Christ still, and they mock His authority, but it cannot be true of you. It cannot be true of you.
The Bible says in Philippians, chapter 2, of our Lord Jesus Christ, that “Though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched, a thing to be held onto. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. Being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
There were two thieves crucified on either side of Christ that day at Calvary. We know very little about them. According to a pseudepigraphic writing called The Gospel of Nicodemus, their names were Dismys and Domicus, but that might be bogus. We really don’t know. We do now this: one of those thieves rejected Christ, and the other thief accepted Christ. These are the only two choices that are offered to us. We can accept Him or we can reject Him. The one thief who accepted Him acknowledged his own sinfulness, that he deserved crucifixion. He also acknowledged the sinlessness of Christ. Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” He acknowledged that Jesus represented divine authority, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. If we would be saved, we must do the same. Jesus said to that good thief, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
You know, as we close, I want to mention a little story told to me by Bobby Richardson. Bobby Richardson played baseball for the New York Yankees. He was a multi-year all star and one of the greatest baseball players in the history of baseball. He was a teammate of Mickey Mantle’s.
Barb and I had dinner with him some time back, and he told us how Mickey Mantle accepted Christ. Bobby Richardson, in fact, is going to be coming to our church and speaking at Cherry Hills Community Church in the fall. He told me how Mickey Mantle accepted Christ as he was on his deathbed and how he asked Jesus to come into his heart, and how, with tears in his eyes, he asked Jesus to be his Savior and his Lord. Bobby said to me, “You know, when we get to heaven, Mickey’s going to be there.” I hope that’s true.
Pat Boone has told the story of how he was with Rock Hudson in the final days of Rock Hudson’s life as Rock Hudson was dying of AIDS and how Rick Hudson accepted Christ and received Him as Savior and Lord, and I hope that’s true. Billy Graham tells of how he was in the back seat of the limousine of Steve McQueen as Steve McQueen was in the latter stages of his cancer. This famous actor was dying. Billy Graham tells us of how Steve McQueen wept and how he invited Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. I hope that’s true.
But it would be a mistake if you wait until the end of your life. It would be a mistake because you don’t know when the end of your life is going to come. You may die suddenly. You might have no chance to repent. Every time you reject the gospel, the Bible says your heart is hardened and it becomes more and more difficult, as years go by, to accept Christ as your heart is hardened. Of course, if you wait, you miss the opportunity to experience the joy and the incredible, awesome journey that we have in Christ now.
We want to invite you this morning to receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord and to seal your future. What I’m going to do is say a word of prayer. As I say a word of prayer, I’m going to ask those of you who want to ask Jesus into your heart as Savior and Lord to pray with me. Your faith does no need to be perfect. Faith can be mixed with doubt, but faith cannot be mixed with apathy. You have to respond to Christ. If you have faith enough to ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior and to commit your life to Him as Lord… If the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart, we invite you to do that this morning. Let’s pray together.