He Is Risen: Past, Present, and Future

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark preached the Easter morning sermon for Resurrection Sunday 2015, walking the congregation through the story of the resurrection from the Gospel of Luke before drawing out what that story means for how we live now and where the church is headed. He kept the message in three parts: the past, the present, and the future. Pastor Mark opened by simply telling the Easter story from Luke,...

Read together

1. Matthew (unspecified verse) Angel's words to the women at the tomb: 'Don't be afraid. I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen.'
2. Luke 23:55-56 Women from Galilee follow and see the tomb on Friday, then go home to prepare spices before the Sabbath begins
3. Luke 24:1-4 Women return Sunday morning, find the stone rolled away and the body missing, two men appear in dazzling robes
4. Luke 24:5-53 (extended passage) Full Easter narrative including the angels' words, Peter running to the tomb, the road to Emmaus, and Jesus appearing to the disciples
5. John 19:28-30 Jesus cries 'I thirst,' receives sour wine, then says 'It is finished' and gives up his spirit; used to explain the Greek word tetelestai
6. John 3:16 Quoted to illustrate that belief is the bridge to salvation: 'For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life'
7. 1 Corinthians 11 (unspecified verses) Paul's account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, including 'every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death until he comes again'
8. Mark 13 (unspecified verses) Disciples ask Jesus about the end times; Jesus warns of false messiahs, wars, earthquakes and famines, and says persecution will be an opportunity to tell about him
9. Mark 13:10 Quoted directly: 'For the good news must first be preached to all the nations'

Talk about it

1. The pastor read from Luke 24 where the disciples on the road to Emmaus said 'we had hoped that he was the Messiah' - a hope they spoke of in the past tense because death had crushed it. When has something in your own life caused you to shift a living hope into the past tense like that, and what brought it back?
2. The women's report of the resurrection 'sounded like nonsense' to the disciples, and even Peter ran to the tomb, saw the empty wrappings, and went home still wondering. What does it say to you that God chose to build the church on people who struggled this hard to believe what they had seen with their own eyes?
3. The pastor walked through the Greek word tetelestai from John 19 and said Jesus meant that everything needed to secure salvation was completely finished on the cross, with nothing left to add. How does that change the way you think about what God expects from you day to day?
4. The 'First B' mnemonic called on people to be real first, whether they are believers or not, because hypocrisy is the number one thing keeping people away from Jesus. Where do you find it hardest to be real about where you actually are in your faith, and what makes that difficult?
5. The pastor showed the real-time map of gospel presentations happening around the world and said the future of Christianity is ordinary people telling their story, with nothing more required than what happened to them. What would it look like for you personally to tell your story to someone this week?