This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 9, 1990.

Tonight our scripture reading is from Luke’s Gospel, the twenty-fourth chapter, Luke chapter twenty-four. And we’ll start with the first verse and read through verse twelve and then pick up again in verse thirty-six. hear the word of God. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel. As the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen.

Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee. saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and they turned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Johanna and Mary, the mother of James. Also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrapping only, and he went away to his home, marveling at that which had happened.” Then there is the account of the two on the road to Emmaus. We know that story well, and we pick up again in verse 36 after These men had come back and reported what they had experienced from Jesus as he met them on the way. And while they were telling these things, he himself, that is Jesus, stood in their midst.

They were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. He said to them, why are you troubled? and why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that of his eye myself? Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their sight.

Now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and he said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you, that you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’

And he led them out as far as Daphne, and lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came about that while he was blessing them, departed from them. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising God. Pray with me now.

Our God, we are looking unto you, realizing, Father, that if we are to find strength it will be found with you we know our God that we find ourselves weak and that before the declaration of your power in such an event such an incomparable event as the resurrection and Lord how we thank you how we rejoice in the power that is displayed in that event.

And Father, we are rejoicing too because this means renewal and refreshment, rebirth for us. O God, may it be plain to us and to those about us that we ourselves have been visited by you, that we are serious, so very serious about our lives, how we live them, how we conduct ourselves, that the very power of Christ and his resurrection may be apparent in us. And Lord, how we yearn for your people that the same may be true for them throughout the world. Our God, we are not those who hang our hopes upon a revival, but we are those who hang our hopes upon your renewal of us, your regenerating work within our hearts. And our Father, we pray that your people who are regenerated would not be deceived by the world, nor put to sleep by the things that come their way in this world, nor distracted by those things either. Instead, may our full energy be directed towards our service to you.

This means, our God, that even in the little matters, or those matters that may appear to be small, like attendance at evening worship, like attendance during midweek service, that these things might become important to us again, and that we might demonstrate that we are a people of your word, and that we are devoted to you, and anxious to obey you in every respect. We ask these things now, in Jesus’ name, Amen. There are a few details that are in need of reading up with respect to the death of Christ before we move on to the complications involved in the accounts of the resurrection. Now, this is not for the purpose of throwing you off or confusing you, but rather setting forth for you honestly the record that we have in all of its complexities and with its problems and difficulties.

According to Mark, chapter 15, verse 25, we are told Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m. on Friday. 9 a.m. on Friday. That would mean that he hanged upon the cross for about six hours. If you happen to be reading the Gospel of John, the 19th chapter, the 14th verse, you’ll find there the suggestion that it was noon when the Jews actually prevailed against Pilate and were granted a favorable verdict for execution.

So obviously we have a problem here, don’t we? The problem will not be resolved by us tonight. I don’t pretend this evening to go on and resolve that difficulty that appears in the text. But be assured of this, this being the best we will do this evening, there is that fact that is mentioned by three of the four gospel writers, and is also inferred by John, that darkness did in fact cover the whole land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, that was from noon to three in the afternoon.

So, that fact seems to be well confirmed by the gospel accounts. So I think you know how we have regularized this whole affair in the church of our time. And we have adopted, it seems, the post-reformational three-hour service. Have you attended such a service on Good Friday from noon to three? Did you know that that service was originally concocted by the Jesuits after the Reformation? It was bought by the Church of England and then disseminated in the colonies as the colonies and the churches in the colonies became communities and ecumenical Protestant enterprises. So the origin of the Good Friday three-hour service was the Jesuits and by route of them through the Church of England to community Protestantism in the colonies. You might note as well that this service continues to bear Roman Catholic marks.

For instance, there are only two days in the calendar year when Catholics do not celebrate the mass, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Those are the two days when mass is not celebrated. Well, you see, in the three-hour Good Friday service, there’s no communion service either, even as Protestants celebrate it. And in that service, there is the Roman Catholic practice of the short homily on the seven last words of Christ.

That’s a Roman Catholic practice born of the Counter-Reformation. It was not originally a Protestant practice. I might add, in relation to all of this, the practice of Covenant, O.P.C. Grove City. Their practice is to hold a regular preaching service, in which there is one message delivered in keeping with ordinary Protestant practice, and in that service there is a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. You might ask, what are the origins of this? That is the continental Protestant tradition. On Good Friday, there was a regular preaching service in which the Lord’s Supper was celebrated, And that is a statement over against the Catholic practice. You see all these things come about? All right, well, there you have it.

We won’t settle the problem of the apparent contradiction between Mark and John tonight, but just to fill you in a bit on some of the details of the crucifixion, Jesus is hanging on the cross, according to one account, from nine till three in the afternoon. but most assuredly from noon to three when darkness does in fact cover the whole world. Alright, Jesus has died around 3pm in the afternoon on that Friday.

And now we enter into, if you haven’t been confused by some of this so far, we enter into the cryptic and compressed treatment of what follows And what we find here in the resurrection accounts may be as mysterious as the event itself. Have you ever attempted to harmonize the various accounts of the resurrection as they appear in the four Gospels? Well, that’s what I’m going to attempt for you this evening. I’m going to attempt to harmonize the biblical accounts, not so you can race from one gospel to the other, and because that will virtually be an impossibility, but I’m going to try to weave together for you something of a harmonious account of the resurrection from the four gospels, and see something of what the scriptures present for us with regard to that period that stretches from Christ’s resurrection to his ascension forty days later.

You know, first of all, that Joseph of Arimathea and as well Nicodemus, who were both members of the ruling council in Jerusalem and secret disciples, they come and then bury Jesus. And that account is given to us in Matthew and also in John. The women Specifically, Mary Magdalene is mentioned, and another Mary. They observe where Jesus is buried.

The Jews then next, interestingly, on the Sabbath, go to Pilate and weasel out of him a guard to be posted at the tomb. Interestingly, it’s done on the Sabbath. What are they doing that for on the Sabbath? Obviously, they’re breaking the Sabbath. very interesting fact in itself. Well, what are the women doing on the Sabbath? They’re keeping the law of God. They rest. Even though Christ is in the tomb, that event being of such monumental importance to them, they do not violate the law of God. They keep the Sabbath.

They rest on the Sabbath day, while the leaders of the Jews are breaking the Sabbath, which are your friends. You break the Sabbath? Throw your lot in with the rulers of the Jews? Or do you keep the Sabbath like the women? All right, well, the women are keeping the Sabbath. They rest, but then they return early Sunday morning as the day dawns towards the first day of the week. Before they have arrived Jesus is raised.

The stone is rolled back as we are told from the tomb, there is an earthquake, there is the appearance of an angel, the guards are terrified, and the women who appear then are comforted by the angel visiting. Upon entering the tomb, The women are greeted again by angels who give them instruction about what they should say to the remaining eleven disciples of Christ. Now what follows becomes very confusing for us if we are attempting to meld together the various accounts, so hang in there now.

It seems that somehow in all of this At least according to John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene becomes separated from the other women. Possibly upon seeing the empty tomb, she immediately races through the town to the disciples with word that the body of Jesus has, in effect, been stolen. Meanwhile, the other women are making their way to the disciples, back to the disciples. Possibly there are some that are not able to move as quickly as Mary Magdalene. She may be swift to foot, but anyway, they’re moving a little bit more slowly, and as Matthew tells us in his account, they are met by Jesus, the risen Christ.

28th chapter of this gospel, verses 9 and 10. Now, they arrive at that place where the disciples are, with their story, to add to Mary’s excited report, which she’s already conveyed to the disciples. The disciples, and possibly even Mary herself, find these words from the other women incredulous. But Peter, so we are told, in Luke, and Peter, along with the beloved disciple, so tells us John, race to the sepulcher. Peter and John, the beloved disciple, find that the body is in fact John, and they are puzzled by this, Women’s words have been confirmed, at least insofar as the body is not there. They return, however, to their homes, we are told, by Luke and by John.

Now what about Mary? She was able to outrun, possibly, the other women in coming to the disciples in the first place, And because of that, he had missed out on the encounter with Christ that the other women had, but now she’s not quite as fast as Peter and John, so she’s trailing along behind them. And as she trails along behind and comes into the garden and near to the tomb, she herself meets the risen Christ.

We have that marvelous exchange given for us in John’s Gospel, the 20th chapter, verses 15 through 17. Remember how it goes. She doesn’t recognize him at first. She thinks he’s the gardener, and she pleads with him, tell me, sir, where you have laid him. Then Jesus speaks her name, Mary, and her response is, Rabboni, which means, my teacher. And then he proceeds to teach her. Teach her as no woman has been taught with respect to the ultimate destiny of mankind. He says, don’t cling to me, Mary.

She wants to hold him there, you know. Don’t cling to me, don’t hold me down. I must ascend. I must go above. That’s the point to which I employ. That’s the point to which I am directed. I am going above. I must ascend to my God and your God. Don’t try to hold me down for some sort of paradise here upon earth. See, I’m going above, he tells her.

And now, of course, she raises back to the disciples, and with words that she also has seen the risen more. Now, meanwhile, as we are told by Luke, There are a number of disciples, those who had clung to Christ, they had been attached to him. A number of these disciples had become discouraged by the events.

You can imagine their state of mind and soul. The one whom they had served is dead. What hope is there? He is gone. So they are discouraged. And they have left Jerusalem. Why hang around? They have left Jerusalem for their home. Now, two of them are traveling toward Emmaus, which is to the west of Jerusalem, about seven miles, we are told. And while they are on their journey, they are overtaken by a stranger. They don’t know who this fellow is. He walks with them along the way, and as He does, He opens up for them the Scriptures, and tells them why it must be that the Messiah should suffer in order to enter into His glory.

Arriving at their homes, they convince this stranger to stay with them, And then as they sit down to meal, and he breaks bread for them at the table, they recognize him as Christ, Jesus, the Risen Lord. So now they’re racing back to Jerusalem, covering that seven miles as they’ve never covered it before, filled with joy, and when they arrive there, they find out in the telling of their story that Christ, in the meantime, has also appeared to Peter. Now that is related to us in Luke. twenty four thirty four, but it’s also mentioned interestingly by Paul, you know, in his resurrection chapter, first Corinthians fifteen. He tells us that Christ appeared to Cephas, appeared to Peter, so that appearance to Peter as the chief of the disciples is mentioned by Luke and by Paul. As these are now assembled on that evening, that Sunday evening, Jesus appears to them.

He proves that he is risen in the body and no spirit, remember? He invites them to investigate his wounds, to look at them. He also says, do you have anything here to eat? And then he eats something in their presence. convincing them that this is in fact a raised body that they are looking at, transformed, truly transformed, made new by the Spirit, but His body nevertheless.

And in that context we are told as well that He commissions His servants, He empowers them He promises them the Spirit and breathes on them. You remember from John’s account, breathing on them, he says, receive the Spirit. And then, as Luke goes on to tell us, he opens the Scriptures to them, maybe even more, he opens their minds so that they can understand the Scriptures.

And moving back to John’s gospel once more, we find out that Thomas wasn’t there that evening. He wasn’t there, and when he returns and speaks with the group, Jesus having left, he, Thomas, refuses to believe, unless I see the print of the nails in his hand, the wounds in his feet, I will not believe.

So a week later, We’re told they’re assembled again on Sunday evening. Interesting. I love those passages. They’re assembled again on Sunday evening. And when they’re assembled that week later, that evening, Jesus comes and stands in their midst and promises wisdom this time. And there is that wonderful, wonderful account of the exchange between them.

Jesus offering himself to Thomas, Thomas being straightened because of his doubt and conviction, and exclaiming in the 20th verse, I believe it is of that 20th chapter, My Lord, and my God.” To which Jesus then responds, do you believe because you have seen? How blessed are those who believe even though they have not seen. How blessed are you in that you believe on the basis of the word of God, even though you have not seen personally the risen Christ. Well, what happens next? Trying to sew all of this together.

The disciples then, in keeping with Jesus’ command, which he has given repeatedly, through the angels and in keeping with statements that he has made previously, the disciples in keeping with these commands from Christ travel to Galilee from Jerusalem and move north back to the territory from which they were from.

Possibly as they wait for further word from him, Peter and some of the other disciples decide to go fishing. Do you remember the account in John 21? There appears that scene in the 21st chapter of John, of Peter and some of the other disciples going out for an evening of fishing, and then, having not caught anything, they spy the man on the shore, who tells them where to cast their nets, and they draw in that great catch of fish, and Peter recognizes the man on the shore as the risen Christ throws himself into the water and swims to shore and comes to shore before the other. But at any rate, there is that scene in which Jesus then feeds the disciples breakfast on the shore and then commands his disciples through Peter, whom he addresses three times, to feed his sheep.

After this event, it seems that the disciples were gathered on a mount in Galilee. It has been suggested by some that it was at this point that the five hundred others that are mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6, also assembled. It wasn’t just the disciples on that occasion, but at any rate, upon that mount in Galilee We have that definitive commission given to the disciples, the so-called Great Commission, with which Matthew’s Gospel concludes.

Jesus then continues to appear to his disciples over the forty-day period that stretches from his resurrection to his ascension. From Galilee, his disciples return once more to Jerusalem, where, at the end of this period, Jesus leads them out of the city of Jerusalem to the east, to the Mount of Olives, and into the vicinity of Bethany. He there blesses them, and while he is blessing them, he is received up into glory until the time of his return.”

So there you have it. I ought to put this all in a chart for you to have an easy index to the resurrection stories that appear in Scripture. In recounting this marvelous history and trying to put it together into a harmony, it is important to place before us, to place before ourselves the importance of this great event, the resurrection of Christ. First of all, in this regard, is its historical nature and the factuality of the resurrection, the sheer power of that, as it registered upon you.

At this very moment, he is alive in his body. At this very moment, Jesus is alive in his body. Jesus is not dead. Now do you understand what that means for you? The historical factuality of Christ’s resurrection is of monumental importance to you, for this one historical figure in the body has been raised, and the promise is that historically, factually, you in the body shall rise too. That is what stands at the center of the Christian message. If you don’t believe that, well, I’m glad you’re here so you can hear the gospel preached. But if you don’t believe that, you are certainly not a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. You are not truly a follower. of Jesus.

Those who follow Jesus will follow Him right into resurrection. Literally. All right. There is this important fact, the historical nature of the resurrection and the sheer power of it. Jesus is alive in His body. He is not dead. and as he is, so you shall be. Secondly, there is the great apologetical power with respect to this event. Jesus said he would rise, and he did. Jesus said he would rise, and he did.

Now, not only that, You have, backing this up, the entire line of Old Testament expectation. And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that entire line of Old Testament expectation receives its confirmation. Godly Jews in the time of Jesus believed in the resurrection. the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the body. You want to hear a good Jewish confession with respect to the hope of the resurrection?

Turn to John’s Gospel, the eleventh chapter. You have Jesus there at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. And who is the woman that meets him first? It is Lazarus’ sister, Martha. Jesus says to her in verse 23, your brother shall rise again. Martha’s response in verse 24 of that 11th chapter of John is this, I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Well, I don’t know if I’m prepared to believe that. But I do know that he will rise on the last day. That’s good Jewish theology.

You see now, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that entire line of Old Testament expectation receive fulfillment and confirmation. Now is there registering upon you the impact of the appearance of the Risen Christ to that good old Jew, Saul of Tarsus? You see what it meant for him to see the Risen Christ. On the road to Damascus. everything that he had ever been taught to expect from his Old Testament religion. He sees it there on the road. Jesus is alive. That means the Old Testament is truer than ever I had imagined. And the expectation and hope of Old Testament Israel is contained in this one who has been raised. For it changed his life. It changed his life.

Now this very apostle, thirdly, then declares for us the indispensable character of the resurrection event. We know his resurrection chapter, verse 20 and 15. Without the resurrection, Paul says, we are still in our sins. If Christ didn’t rise, we are still in our sins. Our faith is vain. My preaching is vain, says Paul.

It goes on to underscore the fact that in the resurrection power, God, who raised Christ as the first fruit, will also raise us up and back certainly. Finally, there is that abiding significance of the resurrection for our current situation, and this also is underscored by the Apostle for whom that resurrection has become central to all of his senses.

For he will tell us now, not only are we crucified with him so that the old man dies, we are raised with him so that we are alive as new men in a new life and an eternal life. that is present and is enjoyed by the saints of the world. You need not wait to the last day. You need not wait to the end of the world. There is the contemporary significance of the resurrection in that already you have begun to enjoy resurrection blessings. The old man and his practices are being put to death. The new man has come, and you are alive in the dead. And sin no longer is behind the mastery of it. Well, there’s the resurrection. Is there anything so great? triumph over death, and also power over sin, that we might not live in the power of death and sin any longer. All of that is a praise of the glorious grace of God in Christ. Amen.

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