EASTER SUNDAY
CHRIST IS RISEN – SO WHAT?
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 16, 2006
MATTHEW 28:1-10
The year was 1930. The Communist Leader Bukharin traveled from Moscow to Kiev. He was going to address a vast assembly and it was Easter morning. He was a Communist and he was an atheist and he knew that in the crowd there would be many Christians, Russian Orthodox Christians, and so Bukharin decided to attack the Christian faith that day and to give an apologia for atheism. And so he stood in front of the crowd and he delivered his message. When he was finished he looked out on what he thought was the smoldering ashes of peoples’ faith. He said with confidence, “Are there any questions?” An old man rose up from the crowd and he shouted, “Christ is risen!” and the whole assembly arose as one and they responded, “He is risen indeed!” The Christian faith cannot be conquered. Jesus Christ has risen.
In the modern world, people hear the message “Christ is risen” and they say, “Prove it!” Of course, modernity came from the enlightenment, the so-called age of reason. It was founded on the principals of the scientific method and so you say, “He is risen, then prove it.” But sociologists tell us and philosophers tell us that today we’ve arrived at a different age, a different era, the era of post modernity and people no longer say, “Prove it.” They just say, “So what? You have your truth. I have my truth. You say He is risen. So what?” But, you see, this Easter morning Jesus would say to us, “Be My disciple.” Jesus would say, “Join My talmidim.” The word in the Hebrew for disciple is the word talmid and those who join the disciples were called talmidim.
In the days of Jesus, there were many rabbis and they all had their own talmidim. They all had their own disciples and they were respected in Israel, the talmidim. They were devoted to the rabbis. They had been educated in Bet Sefer and by the age of nine they had memorized the Torah and they had been educated in Bet Talmud and by the age of 14 they had memorized the whole Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Malachi, all 39 books. Then at the age of 15, they had approached a rabbi and they had said, “Make me your disciple. I accept your yoke. I accept your interpretation of Torah. I accept your semikhah. I accept your authority. What you bind will be bound for me. What you loose will be loosed for me. Make me like yourself.” They were the talmidim.
Of course, Jesus came into the world and He was a rabbi like no other and he had Semikhah, authority, like no other. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me.” This rabbi died and rose again. No rabbi had ever done that. And he appeared to those who believed in Him and He said, “Go and make disciples,” talmidim. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I’ve commanded you.” Jesus invites everyone to join His talmidim. He is risen. Join His disciples. He is still recruiting disciples today. You don’t have to have gone through Bet Sefer. You don’t have to have memorized the Torah. You don’t have to have gone through Bet Talmud. You don’t have to have memorized the Hebrew Old Testament, but you do have to say to Jesus, “I accept Your yoke.” He says, “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.” He invites us all to be His disciples but we must say, “I accept your yoke. I accept your semikhah, Your authority. What You bind will be bound for me. What You loose will be loosed for me. Make me like Yourself.” When we say that to Jesus, when we become His disciple, He has three very simple imperatives for us, and these are the three imperatives that Jesus gave to the two woman that Easter morning, to the two Marys.
First of all Jesus said, charete, “rejoice.” If you’ve joined the talmidim, charete! “If you’ve joined My disciples, rejoice!” The word charete in some Bibles is rendered “hail.” In other Bibles it’s rendered “greetings.” Some modern translations say, “Hi,” or, “Hello,” but, you see, the word charete literally means “joy to you.” It’s in the imperative and it means “rejoice.” Charete, rejoice. Like Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, ‘Rejoice!’”
There’s not enough joy in churches today; not enough happiness; not enough laughter; not enough joy in the life of most Christians today. But He is Risen, so charete! Rejoice!
I read about two weeks ago the story of a couple that lives in Minnesota. It was wintertime and they were tired of the ice and the snow. They thought, “We’ve been married 20 years this month. It’s our 20th anniversary. Let’s take a trip down to Florida and get away from the cold and let’s stay at the same hotel we stayed at in Florida 20 years ago, kind of a second honeymoon. Their schedules were very busy but the husband went down on February 21. His wife would come the next day, February 22. He went down first to make sure that everything was arranged. He got into the hotel and got the hotel room. He was very pleased. The hotel was still wonderful. The weather was great. He got to his room and he saw there was a computer, so he decided to e-mail his wife since she was going to be coming down the next day.
He decided to e-mail her, but he was in a hurry and he used the wrong e-mail address and it went to a woman who was in Houston. This woman in Houston was married to a pastor, a minister of a church, and her husband had just died. She was, of course, in grief. She came home and she checked her e-mail thinking there might be some sympathy messages. She read this e-mail and she fainted and just passed out. Her son came in and saw the computer screen and it said, “To my loving wife… Date: February 21, 2006. Subject: I have arrived. Dearest, I know that you are surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now. You’re allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and I’ve been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. I look forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is an uneventful as mine was. P.S. Sure is hot down here!”
I suppose there’s not a lot of joy if you think you’re going to die tomorrow and go to the wrong place but, you see, if you’ve joined the talmidim, if you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven, your ticket is punched to heaven, and so rejoice! He is risen!
Jesus had a second imperative for these two women, and the same imperative He addresses to us today and that is this: Me phobeisthe. “Do not be afraid.” “I’m alive, so rejoice. I’m alive. Fear not. Do not be afraid.”
Of course before Jesus said “Me phobeisthe” to the women, they had already heard that message from the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. For fear of him, the Bible says the guards “trembled and became like dead men.” The Angel of the Lord said to the women, “Me phobeisthe,” “Do not be afraid,” except he added the emphatic umeis, which means, “You do not be afraid,” and the implication was, with regard to the guards, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” But to the talmidim, to those who believe, “Fear not.” Yet the Bible tells us that the women ran from the tomb with joy and with fear and so Jesus met them on the road. He did not want them to fear and He said to them again, “Me phobeisthe.” “Fear not.”
No one offers the peace that Jesus Christ offers. Nobody else can offer the peace of Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. There are many religions in the world and yet none of them offer the peace of Jesus. In Islam there are the Five Pillars of Islam. There is “shahada,” which is the public confession of Allah. There is “salat,” which is the ritualistic prayer that is rendered five times daily at the sound of the crier from the minaret. Each Muslim must offer prayer in a prostrated position with forehead touching the ground facing Mecca. Then there is “sawm,” and it is the fast, the daytime fast in the month of Ramadan. Then there is “zakah.” Zakat is the giving of money and the giving of alms. And then finally the fifth pillar is “hajj,” the pilgrimage. Every able bodied Muslim must make at least once in their life that journey to Mecca. They must circle the Kaaba. They must kiss the black stone that allegedly fell from heaven.
In Islam there is not a lot of confidence in salvation. There’s a great deal of fear. In the Koran and in the Hadith there is the teaching that every Muslim has two angels. There is one angel writing down all the good things that you’ve done, all the good things that you’ve thought, and all the good attitudes you’ve had. And there’s another angel writing down all the bad things you’ve done, all the bad thoughts you’ve had, and all the bad attitudes you’ve had. You just hope against hope that at the final judgement the good exceeds the bad. There’s not a lot of peace there. But you see, Jesus says to the talmidim, “Fear not. May-fo-be-es-they. Do not be afraid. Your sins are forgiven and you are bound for heaven. Do not be afraid.”
I don’t know what you’re facing today. Maybe you’ve been told you have cancer. Maybe you’ve been told it’s terminal. Maybe you feel like death is just around the corner but if you’re in the talmidim, Jesus said, “Me phobeisthe. Do not be afraid.” Maybe you’ve lost somebody you love. Maybe you’re afraid of losing your job. I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but “Me phobeisthe.” If you’ve joined the talmidim, He promises that He will work everything for good. No one offers the peace of Christ.
Up front here on the stage we have Easter lilies. When we think of Easter we think of many things, and one of the things that we think of is lilies. Lilies are white and they represent the purity offered by Christ. They represent new life offered by Christ. Of course, in the Bible Jesus is called the Lily of the Valley. Jesus spoke of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Believe it or not, botanists have tried to identify exactly what type of lily Jesus was referring to. It’s not easy because botanists tell us that there are 4,000 different species of lilies. But it doesn’t matter.
Do you understand what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field? You don’t need an ornithologist or a botanist because Jesus was really talking about fear. He was talking about anxiety. He said, “If you’re in the talmidim, if you seek My kingdom, if you follow Me, don’t be anxious about anything. As God feeds the birds of the air, He’ll feed you. As He clothes the lilies of the field, He’ll clothe you. Fear not. Me phobeisthe.” So that’s the second imperative this Easter morning for us. “Charete, rejoice! Me phobeisthe, fear not!”
Finally, there is one other imperative from Jesus. He said to the two women, “Hypagete, hypagete.” It means, “Go.” “I’m alive, so hypagete. I’m alive, so go!” Easter is a call to action. He is risen, so get to work! Easter is a call to action. Hypagete.
There’s a story, a true story, I’ve often told in our Discovery Classes at Cherry Hills Community Church. I tell it in our New Members Class. Some of you have heard it. Many of you have not. It’s a true story about a man named Larry Walters in Los Angeles who was bored and one Saturday afternoon he went down to the Army Navy store and he bought himself 45 balloons. These were not like the colorful balloons you see on the side here this morning. These were heavy duty industrial balloons, military grade balloons. Each balloon was 4 feet wide. He brought these 45 balloons home and then he got a large tank of helium and he blew up all 45 balloons and he attached them to his lawn chair in the front yard which he anchored to the ground. Then he went into his kitchen, made himself a couple of sandwiches, got a couple of beers out of the refrigerator… You may have read about this in the newspaper. He got himself his BB gun and he went out and sat in that lawn chair with his lunch and his beer and his BB gun and he cut the cords. He thought he would rise gently from the yard. He thought he would kind of hover over the neighborhood, that he’d eat his lunch and wave to his neighbors and then incrementally, gradually, he would take the BB gun and just shoot out the balloons and gently come back to his front yard. That’s what he thought would happen.
I was amazing. When he cut the cords, it was like Cape Canaveral. He was just launched. It was like rapture. He just went instantly to 11,000 feet and he could not eat his sandwiches. He could not drink his beer. He was afraid to shoot out a balloon and so he just drifted there for 14 hours until he drifted into the flight pattern at LAX. It was a Pan American flight that first saw him. The pilot radioed the tower at LAX and said, “You’re not going to believe this but there’s a guy up here in his lawn chair.” The FAA had a few problems with this. Larry Walters was brought back down. They interviewed him and they said, “What were you thinking?” He said, “You know, sometimes you just can’t sit around anymore. You’ve got to do something!”
That’s certainly true of us as Christians. You can’t just sit around. You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to do something because He is risen and He said, “Hypagete!” Go! So go and love somebody! Go and show them the love of Jesus Christ. Go and show compassion in the name of Christ. Elevate the poor. Liberate the oppressed. Seek social justice, but go and tell the story. go and tell the world about Jesus, that He is Risen, that He is alive, that He forgives sins, that He offers heaven, that He’s the hope of the world, but go because Christianity is a call to action.
We saw last week on Palm Sunday that Jesus is the Christ from the Greek word chrio, which means, “The Anointed One.” We saw that Jesus is the Messiah from the Hebrew massah, which means, “The Anointed One.” In Israel in biblical times when people were anointed it was the offering of a divine touch. When you anointed someone, you gave them a touch of God. When you anointed them with oil and you prayed over them, you were giving them a touch of the divine. That’s anointing, but Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the massah, the Anointed One, and He is divine and He wants to anoint the talmidim. He wants to anoint you. He wants to give you a divine touch and He’ll do that if you go because He anoints people who enter into ministry and enter into service. His anointing is for those who serve. His anointing is for those who minister and He wants to anoint you. He wants to give you a touch of the divine.
There’s a story I want to conclude with. The story begins in the year 1909 in Vienna, Austria, at the Hofburg Museum. There is a young man, 20 years old. He’s pale and he’s thin and he’s looking at an exhibit in the Hofburg Museum in Vienna, Austria. As he looks through the glass, he sees crowns and lights are shining down on golden crowns, but he’s not really interested in that. What he’s interested in is a sword or a spear. It’s called the Sword of Longinus. This young man was looking at that sword and he wanted it. The Sword of Longinus was allegedly the sword that Gaius Cassius Longinus thrust into the side of Christ at His crucifixion. As it says in John 19, “Blood and water poured out.” This young man who was looking at that sword thought that the anointing of Christ was on the sword. The sword had once belonged to Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor. The sword had also once belonged to Charles Martel, who drove the Arabs out of France in the 8th century. The sword had once belonged to Charlemagne, and then the sword had belonged to Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor. This young man, 20 years old, wanted the sword for himself. His name was Adolph Hitler.
Adolph Hitler hated Christianity and he viewed Christianity as a religion of the weak. He hated it, but he wanted that sword because some corner of his mind, some corner of his soul, thought that Christ was King and there was power and anointing in that sword. And so in 1938, historians tell us, when the Nazis annexed Austria, Hitler commanded that that sword be brought to Nuremberg and to the museum in Nuremberg and finally to a special vault that he had built in the Nuremberg Castle.
Later, on April 30, 1945, when the allied forces stormed Nuremberg… On that day they found the Sword of Longinus in the vault in the Nuremberg Castle. Just two hours earlier, Adolph Hitler had committed suicide in a Berlin bunker. Of course the anointing hadn’t passed into the sword. The anointing never went into the crown of thorns. The anointing of Christ never went into the wood of the cross. If you had all the wood that was sold through the centuries that allegedly belonged to the cross, you could build Noah’s Ark. His anointing never went into the cup. It never went into the Holy Grail. It never went into the Mandylion. It never went into the Shroud of Turin. His anointing is for the talmidim. His anointing is for His disciples. His anointing is for you if you would go, if you would minister, if you would serve.
There is a touch of the divine for you so, “Hypagete!” “Go!” He is risen! “Charete!” “Rejoice!” He is Risen! “Me phobeisthe!” “Fear not.” He is Risen! “Hypagete!” “Go!”
Maybe there are some of you here as we close who have never joined the talmidim. You’ve never become a disciple of Jesus Christ. You can do that this morning. Your life will never be the same.
I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior when I was 5 years old, kneeling at my mother’s side with our elbows on the sofa in the living room of our home. My mom is here today. She’s 93 years old. She led me to Jesus 55 years ago. She led me to Jesus and I joined the talmidim. I made the commitment. I accepted the yoke of Christ, the semikhah, the authority of Christ. I knew that what He bound would be bound for me, what he loosed would be loosed for me, and I asked Him to save me and make me like Himself. As the years passed, I had some doubts. When I got into high school I had some doubts. When I got into college I had some doubts, but I never turned my back on the commitment that I had made. I had joined the talmidim.
As I stand before you today, as I stand up here this Easter morning, I don’t doubt anymore. I’ve seen too much. I promise, Jesus is alive! Here’s the deal. You might have some doubts. It’s okay. You can still join the talmidim if you just have faith enough to make the commitment, if you just have faith enough this morning. Don’t worry about doubt. Over the years He will take the doubt away. What you should worry about is apathy. There’s no room for apathy. You’ve got to make the commitment, and so you can do that today. I want you to all bow your heads with me and I want us to pray together. Some of you, this morning can join the talmidim, you who have never asked Jesus to be your Rabbi and your Lord and your Savior. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.