Title: Jesus’ Rescue Mission

Text: Acts 10:34-43

I. The "God is Dead" Fallacy

One-hundred-twenty-five years ago, in 1882, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, shook his fist at heaven and defiantly declared, "God is dead."

Not suprisingly, seven years later, "in 1889 he suffered a mental collapse....[and] lived the remainder of his life as an invalid..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche

God has wired us to know that he exists and that he is very much alive. Romans chapter one reminds us:

20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20 (NIV)

Exactly 41 years ago today, on April 8^th 1966, the cover of Time Magazine asked in bold blood-red letters,

"Is God Dead?"

One quote from that article stated this:

"...a small band of radical theologians has seriously argued that the churches must accept the fact of God's death, and get along without him."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309-1,00.html

Two months ago the Discovery Channel aired a show entitled "The Lost Tomb of Jesus."

They claimed to have found the tomb of the "family of Jesus."

They claimed to have irrefutable statistical evidence that Jesus had not risen from the dead. That our celebration of Easter today is a sham.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/about/about.html

They claimed to have found the bones of Jesus. In other words, "God is dead."

But all believing Christian theologians and archeologists looked at the evidence and refuted their fallacious claims.

Even secular magazines looked at their claims and quickly dismissed them. U. S. News and World Report noted:

In the first century, Jesus was a common name, like John or David. So to find a tomb with the name "Jesus" on it was not significant.

Among scholars, there is serious doubt if the person buried in that tomb was even named Jesus, the ancient Aramaic inscription was unclear.

This particular tomb showed the signs of belonging to, "a comfortable Jerusalem middle-class family – something Jesus’s humble Nazarene family was not."

The Canadian statistician who calculated their so called hard statistics "admits that [his] estimates [were] based on assumptions..." – assumptions which cannot be proven.

Even "early Christianity scholar R. Joseph Hoffmann, chair of the skeptically minded Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion... [admits] that the film ‘is all about bad assumptions.’"

(U.S. News & World Report, March 12, 2007)

The fallacious "God is dead" argument is nothing new.

Jesus Truly Died

Of course Jesus died a very real death upon the cross:

Some even died from the scourging alone – the 39 lashes of the whipped, tipped with bits of bone and glass would literally rip the flesh away. (John 19:1 & Deuteronomy 25:3 – Later reduced to 39).

Then Jesus was nailed to the cross, where he died in agony.

In Acts 10:39, St. Peter said,

39"We are witnesses... They killed him by hanging him on a tree,"
Acts 10:39 (NIV)

After he died, a soldier ran a spear up through his heart to make sure he was dead.

 

But Jesus did not remain in the tomb.

Peter goes on to say,

39"We are witnesses... ⁴⁰...God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
Acts 10:39-40 (NIV)

According to our reading in Luke chapter 24, three women, "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James," had gone to Jesus’ tomb three days after his death to embalm his body with spices (Luke 24:10).

When they got there, the stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away.

When my wife Mary and I were in Israel, we visited the Garden Tomb, the tomb many scholars believe Jesus was buried in:

The tomb was carved into a rock wall, leaving a door for an entrance.

It was large enough to walk into.

It had a grove carved in front of the tomb for a huge flat stone – something like a millstone – to be rolled in front of the opening.

The stone the archeologists found at the Garden Tomb was six feet in diameter and over a foot thick.

http://holylandphotos.org/browse.asp?s=1,2,6,27,72&img=ICSHMD20

It weighs 4,000 pounds.

http://www.riverpower.org/resurrection.htm

When the women found the two-ton stone rolled away, they were upset!

They first thought thieves had rolled away the stone in the middle of the night to steal the valuable shroud in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped.

When they entered the tomb, Jesus’ shroud was still there. This made absolutely no sense. No thief would have left that valuable shroud.

But then their fears escalated. Jesus’ body was missing:

What had they done?

Why had they stolen his body?

Had they disfigured his body?

Had they done something horrible?

Their emotions went from grief to outrage!

Then suddenly two angels:

4"...in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them."

They said,

5..."Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’"
Luke 24:4-7 (NIV)

That same day Jesus appeared to Cleopas and another disciple on the Road to Emmaus.

That night Jesus appeared to the Eleven 1.

In First Corinthians chapter 15, St. Paul said,

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time... ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also...

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NIV)

"...[Jesus] was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"

Seven-hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah had foretold, not only Jesus’ death, but also his resurrection. Isaiah chapter 53 tells us:

9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days...

Isaiah 53:9-10 (NIV)

At first glance this makes no sense:

No one goes to the "grave" and sees "his offspring."

No one goes to the "grave" and "prolongs his days."

Yet, one did. His name is Jesus.

Hundreds of eye witnesses have verified the fact that Jesus died on the cross.

Hundreds of eye witnesses have verified the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

The evidence was so overwhelming that hundreds of first century saints willingly laid down their lives, rather than deny their Lord Jesus:

Stephen – the first martyr – was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection.

Eleven of Jesus’ twelve apostles died as martyrs for proclaiming the Good News.

St. Paul was martyred in Rome under the brutal reign of Emperor Nero. http://www.preparingforeternity.com/sr/sr43.htm

The list of martyrs goes on and on and on.

 

Why were they willing to be crucified, beheaded, torn to pieces by animals..?

Because they truly believed Jesus was risen from the dead.

They had seem him. They knew He was alive.

They dared not deny their living Lord Jesus.

 

Not only does Jesus’ resurrection validate the atoning work of the cross.

Not only is Jesus truly alive and at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

Jesus’ resurrection guarantees your resurrection as well.

In First Corinthians chapter 15 St. Paul tells us:

16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:16-17 (NIV)

32…If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

1 Corinthians 15:32 (NIV)

If Christ is not raised, then the whole Christian faith is fiction and we are wasting our time being here this morning.

Again first Corinthians chapter 15 tells us:

20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20 (NIV)

Because Jesus has conquered death and has returned to heaven, those who put their trust in Him will not face the second death (Revelation 2:11) and will ascend into heaven to be with him.

Last month I read an article my Wycliffe Bible Translators president, Bob Creson, about a Bible translator somewhere in Africa.

It was in the late afternoon. He was walking along a sandy street in a small African town.

Along the way, he stopped to visit with some villagers.

As they were talking, he noticed sheep being grilled over open fires lining the street.

Many of his neighbors also bought sheep to be slaughtered and sacrificed; then the carcasses were attached to wooden frames, buried in the sand, and cooked.

Seeing those sheep stretched out on the wooden frames reminded him of Jesus who, with His arms stretched out on the cross, was crucified.

He remembered that many of the people in this language community who were sacrificing sheep believed that at death they would ride a sheep to cross over the flames of hell.

If the sheep they were riding was strong, the flames would singe the sheep but the one riding would arrive safely on the other side of the flames.

Having this image in his mind, the translator entered the family compound of a villager.

Knowing that the translator had just passed through the market, and assuming he had been looking for a lamb to sacrifice, the head of the house asked the translator, "Is the sheep you bought strong?"

The translator replied,

"I didn’t buy a sheep in the market, but I do have a Sheep, and He is strong.

The Bible says that in the past the high priest of Israel sacrificed a sheep once a year to appease God for the sins of the people. When God came to earth in the person of Jesus, He died on a cross as a sacrifice to pay for our sins. That sacrifice was made once and for all. The Bible refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God who will carry us safely to the other side.

To answer your question, ‘Yes, my Sheep is strong. His name is Jesus!’"

(Modified from an article by Wycliffe President, Bob Creson)

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Not only has Jesus died on the cross to take away your sins, but He has risen from the dead to carry us safely to heaven, to protect us from the fires of hell.

Jesus was singed so that you and I could arrive safely in heaven.

Is your sheep strong? Is your sheep strong enough to withstand the fiery blast of hell?

Is your sheep the living Lord Jesus Christ?