Dr. Rodney Plunket

 Because we mark time from  when Jesus’ actual ministry on this earth ended, not all that many people knew anything about it.  Jesus’ ministry took place primarily in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.  If you measure those three contiguous regions, you will find that the length is only about one hundred and fifty miles and the width only about fifty.  Not a great deal of real estate when you consider the massive Roman Empire of which those regions were a part.

I am fairly sure that Jerusalem was the most populous city in which Jesus preached.  But its population was only about eighty thousand, a drop in the proverbial bucket in an empire of fifty million people.

The Jews, to whom Jesus primarily ministered and who comprised the very first churches, were a race of people who were not very popular in that day.  For example, there are many records that reveal the negative attitudes which the citizens of the city of Rome felt toward the Jews who lived among them.  In fact, all Jews were expelled from Rome for a time not too long after Jesus’ death.

And Jesus’ ministry only lasted about three years––such a short period of time, especially when one considers the centuries that Rome ruled its vast empire.

Is it not amazing that by the end of the first century churches had been planted westward from Jerusalem all the way to Rome itself?  And by the end of the second century the spread was even more extensive; Christianity was moving toward the western limits of the empire, and churches were planted beyond the empire’s eastern boundaries.  This Jesus movement would eventually have such a profound impact on the empire that even Roman emperors would be Christians.  Amazing, a ministry that the empire barely noticed came to have such an incredible impact upon it.

How could it happen?  How could a ministry that occurred in such a small region of a huge empire change that empire so much and keep on being a force in the world even into our own time, almost two thousand years later?  How could a ministry that impacted a relatively small percentage of people in such a huge empire so quickly spread all over that empire?  The message of Jesus’ ministry was initially proclaimed solely by the less than popular Jews, so why was it embraced by so many who were not Jews?

Questions like these require detailed answers, and I have neither the time nor the necessary expertise to provide those answers.  But I can tell you that one of the fundamental reasons that Christianity grew and spread and continues to be a force in the world today has to do with Easter.

You see, the Good News about Jesus reports that Jesus died by crucifixion; but it goes on to proclaim that on the third day after his death He was raised to life again.  That third day was a Sunday, and Easter is the anniversary of Jesus’ “Resurrection Sunday.”

One of the main reasons that Christianity spread and that Christianity continues to be a force in our world today, is resurrection.  You see, a group of early followers who knew Jesus and who had seen him die, saw Him again, alive and well, after He had been raised.  A group of them also saw Him ascend up into the sky.  They believed that Jesus ascended to the very throne room of God, and they believed that He would come again and that the fullness of God’s dream for the world would then be realized.

One of the reasons I believe that Jesus indeed was raised to life from death is because it requires some powerful and transformative experience to turn a handful of people from a tiny little region in the Roman Empire into the greatest change agents in history.  And the Bible is very clear about the nature of these early proclaimers.  They were slow to understand Jesus when He was alive, and they show no signs of having world-changing potential.  They were not from any elite class.  There were more fisherman among Jesus’ core group of twelve followers than anything else.  But something galvanized that band of believers.  Something changed them and changed them profoundly.  And they went all over the Roman Empire preaching that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that He was now reigning at the right hand of God.  And what’s more, they believed so firmly in what they preached that they suffered and died because they refused to deny the truth of it.  Why would they die if it never happened?  Why would they die for something they knew to be a lie?  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  That is one of the reasons I believe in the resurrection.  How else can I explain that unimpressive group of followers whose message keeps changing people even today?

But I think the resurrection’s role in the spread of the message of Jesus is even more significant than what I have suggested so far.  Because not only does the resurrection’s factual reality help us understand the spread of the message; maybe more important is the reality of the resurrection’s power in people’s lives.  You see, the Good News about Jesus is not just that He was raised from death therefore believers will be too.  Foundational to the Good News about Jesus is that His resurrection unleashed power that transforms the lives of those who believe before they die; it changes them while they live.  The Good News about Jesus is that His resurrection power raises people to a new life, an abundant life, a transformed life right here on planet earth.  A believer does not have to wait until the afterlife to experience resurrection.  A believer can experience resurrection right here and now.  And it was the reality of that claim which I believe is one of the main reasons that the message of Jesus spread like wildfire in the ancient world, and it is the reality of that claim that causes me to stand before you today to celebrate Easter.

I am celebrating Easter because resurrection power is today.  I am celebrat­ing Easter because resurrection power is everyday.  I am celebrating Easter because the resurrection power of Jesus can cause a person to rise from the dead­ness of a meaningless life that is going nowhere.  I am celebrating Easter because the resurrection power of Jesus can cause a person to rise from the deadness of addiction.  I am celebrating Easter because the resurrection power of Jesus can cause a person to rise from the deadness of loneliness and despair.

In just a moment, David Ruebush is going to come up on the platform and together we are going to lead you in an interactive reading of a passage in the Bible.  This passage is from a book called Romans, a book written by a first century believer named Paul.  Paul talks about sin in this passage, but he does not use it here to refer to some individual bad thing that a person might do.  Paul uses it to refer to an evil power that takes hold of a life and kills it morally and spiritually even though the person keeps breathing.  You will hear Paul proclaim that believers “have been brought from death to life.”  And, at the end of that passage, Paul is going to say that “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The primary point of Paul’s words about eternal life is not that believers will live forever after they die.  The primary point is that they have eternal life power right here and right now.  It is that eternal life power that breaks the hold of sin over their lives.  That is the power that Christ’s resurrection brought into our world.

Now join with David and me in reading this passage from the Book of Romans in the part of the Bible that we call the New Testament.  I am going to lead you in reading the questions in this passage.  David is going to read to all of us the answers in this passage.

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

(From The Dramatized New Testament)

Question      What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

Answer        By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  . . .  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instru­ments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Question      What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Answer        By no means!  Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey––whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . .  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things that you are now ashamed of?

Question      Those things result in death!

Answer        But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Please hear what Paul is saying here.  He is making it very clear that Christ breaks the power of sin.  Paul is writing to Christians, some of whom are accusing him of preaching a message that promotes sin.  They are making that accusation because Paul says that Christians are not under law but under grace.  Paul answers by arguing that it is the grace of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that breaks the hold of sin and allows us to give our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.  Living under law might seem to promote righteousness, but Paul knows that the reverse is true.  Law cannot address the power problem.  Law can tell you what to do, but God’s grace in Christ goes to the real issue.  It goes to the power struggle, and it wins that power struggle.  That is the reason, Paul declares, that Christians can offer themselves to God as instruments of righteousness.  Grace does not promote sin; it generates righteousness through the life-transforming death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I want to close with just a few more words from Paul.  In the biblical book that we call Philippians he says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”  A scholar named Morna D. Hooker who teaches at Cambridge University has a great explanation of what those lines mean.  She says,

Christ’s resurrection is described elsewhere as the result of an act of divine power . . . .  Here it is seen as itself the source of power in the lives of believers.  Those who are in Christ share his faith, his righteousness, and his resurrection––but only if they are prepared to share in ‘his sufferings.’”

Christ’s resurrection is a source of power.  Easter Sunday is a perfect time to be reminded of that great truth.  I believe in Easter.  I believe in the life-transforming power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Please do not leave here this morning without Christ’s resurrection power.  We have several couples moving now to the front, the back, and the south side of this room.  They are there to assist you.  If you need prayers they will pray for you.  If you want to learn more about how to receive Christ’s resurrection power they will talk with you about that need.  If you want to talk to a man, we have men there for you to talk to.  If you want to talk to a woman, we have women there for you to talk to.  If you want to talk to a couple, the couple will talk with you.  We just want to be used by God to allow you to receive Christ’s resurrection power.  Please come now as we stand and sing.