Bread of Life

The New Morning of Living Hope
when Jesus Destroyed
the Power of Death and Resurrected

Matthew 28:1-10, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Jesus died as the Passover lamb
The prophesy of Genesis 3:15 states, "[the woman's] seed shall bruise [the serpent] on the head." Just as it was prophesied, Jesus Christ came to this earth as a descendant of Joseph and Mary, who are both descendants of David. He spent 30 years living a private life and three years in public ministry, after which He died on the cross. Today is that very day, the new morning of resurrection after His death. The Israelites were in miserable slavery under Egypt and escaped after 430 years (1446 BC). Right before the Exodus, God saved them by sacrificing the Passover lamb. It was the symbol of the Messiah who would save mankind as the Passover lamb Himself (John 1:27, 1 Cor 5:7). Amazingly, it was Thursday when they killed the Passover lamb before the Exodus and Jesus was also caught around midnight on Thursday. The date that had been prophesied more than 1,400 years ago had come true.


The last chance that was offered to Judas
Before Jesus was captured, He had the Lord's Supper with His 12 disciples. As He broke bread, He said "Take, eat; this is My body," and as He gave a cup of wine, He said "Drink from it, for this is My blood of the covenant." It was His blood of the covenant that He shed as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sins (Matthew 26:28). Then Jesus said "I Myself choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil." When His disciples were saddened and wondered, He said "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me." It would have been good if Judas Iscariot did not put his hand in the bowl when he heard this. Even if he had firmly determined to betray Jesus, he could have changed his mind at that moment. Yet he still put his hand into the bowl, even after hearing what Jesus had said. What a pitiful man! Judas Iscariot was already plotting to kill Jesus. As he loved money, he was stealing offerings and had been reproved by Jesus (John 12:6). For handing Jesus over, he received thirty silver coins and had them in his pocket for two days. When Jesus was hung on the cross, he felt guilty and could not use the money and killed himself. Even the rope he used to strangle himself on the tree did not want to accept him. He had a miserable ending where he fell from the cliff, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. The thirty silver coins he gave back to the high priests were used to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners as it was prophesied in Bible (Matthew
27:3-10, Acts 1:18-19).


The Easter Morning in Spring when All Creation Revives
After dying on the cross, Jesus went and preached to the spirits who were disobedient in the days of Noah. And He finally resurrected from the dead, three days after He died. While we are born of our parents' flesh and blood, Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. He is God Himself. Thus He cannot be locked up in death. His resurrection is a historical fact. If we do not believe this, there is no purpose or meaning in our life. It is because living itself becomes hell and we would only be accruing more sins. It is spring the season when life abounds and all creation revives. After the winter when all nature shrinks and is still as if it were dead, now the spirit of spring comes around in this land to make the garden of life. And we are greeting the Easter of Jesus at this time, which is full of meaning. We cannot fathom it with the human mind. Resurrection is the act of coming back to life from the dead. The message that we particularly need to keep in mind is this; "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also" (John 14:19). Not only Jesus lives, but we also will live again. How precious is this message? After Jesus was crucified and died, He appeared to two of His disciples who were going down to Emmaus. These two were downtrodden with hearts frozen like the frigid winter.
"Why are your faces so downcast?"
"Don't you know what has happened here?
"What things?"
"A man whom we believed to be the messiah, died dreadfully, without even putting up a fight. We followed him for three years and now are going back home even though we don't have the nerves to face our parents." "Did you not know that it was spoken that He will rise again from death? He never dies." And when Jesus was explaining the scriptures to them, their discouragement and despair disappeared, and their hearts were burning within them. After the resurrection, Jesus showed himself to people 11 times in 40 days - not 4 hours or 4 days, but 40 days! Throughout Israel He showed up before His disciples and one time before 500 people. Finally, He was lifted up to heaven with angels guarding Him, giving His beloved people a benediction.
"Lord, when are you coming back?"
"I will come back in the same way you have seen Me go into heaven and will take you." (Matthew 24, Mark 14, Luke 21, John 18)
Our hearts were once frozen, but now we have the hope of resurrection. Jesus who destroyed the power of death became a living hope for all mankind. A living hope!

Jesus' death was to save mankind
God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that Christ died for us (Romans 5:8, 8:32).
Because people could not believe Him, God showed the proof of His love for us by violently killing His own son on the cross. When the Apostle Paul realized this word, he confessed "Ever since I knew Jesus, I always carry about in the body the dying of Jesus" (2 Cor 4:10-11). Some people say "Resurrection is not real." However, who were the 12 disciples? They were the ones who followed Jesus for three years and fled because they could not believe in Him. If they had not witnessed the resurrection of Jesus themselves, would it have been possible for them to change their lives to take the lead in preaching Jesus, risking their own lives until they died as martyrs? How could creatures ever kill the Creator and Life itself? If Jesus is killed 100 times, He will rise 101 times. He took the cross upon Himself to redeem the sins of mankind. He came with two natures, divine and human, in order to bear all of our sins with His human nature. Since it was mankind that sinned, he came in the likeness of man and took the burden of all sins of mankind upon Himself. Jesus was buried in a new tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. He was at that time a member of the Council. He was very rich also; Joseph lacked nothing. And yet, why would he muster up the courage to go in before Pilate, the governor, to ask for the body of Jesus, if there was no resurrection?
"Let me take the body of Jesus!"
"Why councilman, how are you related to Jesus?"
"I am a disciple of Jesus"
When everyone was gathered and agreed to kill Jesus at the Sanhedrin, he stood up and cried out "object!" and put dreadful fear into the high priests. Imagine him removing the nails and crown of thorns from the bloody body, cleansing the blood and burying Him in his brand new tomb. Jesus mentioned 26 times that He would rise again; and He rose as He said (Matthew 28:6). His resurrection is written in the Old Testament also: "For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay" (Psalms 16:10).


"If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised"
God said ". . . whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:15-17). If there were no resurrection and what we hope for is this life only, then we are of all men most to be pitied and our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:18-19). It means that the life of believers who still give offerings, tithe, and thanks to God, even when it rains, snows, business fails or goes bankrupt, is pitiful. However, since there is resurrection, believers have a living hope. It is a hope that is imperishable and will not fade away, disappear, or be destroyed (1 Peter 1:3-4, Titus 2:11-14)

There is no tomb for believers
While the history of mankind can be summarized as "begat and died," Enoch in Genesis chapter 5 did not see death since God took him. Although wherever people live there are tombs, Jesus does not have a tomb. Believers who believe in Jesus and His resurrection do not have tombs, either. Where believers are asleep, the tombstones shouldn't say "tomb" or "cemetery." Instead, they should say "A house of [so and so]." Tombs are for dead people. It is a prison in which to be locked up. It is a sign of the fall. Jesus who resurrected said "Because I live, you will live also." Then how could we possibly have tombs? We only have a temporary place to sleep if our earthly tent is torn down (2 Corinthians 5:1). We will all resurrect on the day of the Lord's coming (1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16).

Death rules over mankind; only faith can overcome death
The destructive power of death is frightening. Death still rules over mankind. The cause of death is sin. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15). Sin stings men. It stings all over their bodies. It is like a poisoned needle. Sin stings the sinner to death with the poisoned needle. Satan deceives men by making sin look delightful to the eyes, and desirable enough to reach out with the hands. And men will take and eat it. When finally men commit a sin, it exposes itself and shames the person. Then it burns up the sinner in the fire. Satan applauds when men die because of sins. It is frightening. The only way to overcome sin and death is to believe in Jesus. When we believe, our sins disappear. The empty tomb of Jesus Christ is the living hope that shows us that the righteous will be eternally triumphant through the life of Jesus Christ. Peter proclaimed out loud, "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power (Acts 2:24)." 'Originally,' men were not intended to end up in a tomb. Tombs exist because of sin. Due to Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's Words, He told them "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." That is how tombs came into being. People who feel that life is meaningless spend thousands and even millions of dollars to deck out their tombs in ornate extravagance. It hurts God's heart to see this. The Lord is alive. Those who do good works will come to a resurrection of life and those whose works are evil to a resurrection of judgment (John 5:25-29). When we keep the word of Jesus, we will never die (John 8:51). Jesus' resurrection has proven that life can overcome death. Thus resurrection is a living hope for mankind. Some people say that they can't believe it. To such people I say, "What if you don't believe it and die to find that there actually is God's kingdom? It is better to go with faith and if you see it doesn't exist, it won't be late for you to give up then." Would I say this if I weren't that worried? How grateful and joyful to have Jesus who died for my sins? It doesn't cost money, does it? Jesus is God's mystery (Colossians 2:3). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him (Colossians 2:2-3). He has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to us who believe in the resurrection as a living hope (Colossians1:27). Whenever I read the scripture, my heart pounds. How exciting it is! There is no hope on earth. Earthly hope rots. It fades away. It flies away. It disappears. And it deceives.


"Because I live, you will live also."
"Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19)." Keep this word with you forever. "I live, you will live also!" In Greek it means "Because I live, you must live also." It is God's promise. How grateful should we be? Doesn't He deserve our thankful applause? Before believing in this Word we were afraid of death. However, when we understand and believe this Word, we are in peace. What would we be afraid of then? God said to cast our worries upon Him. Now let there be no shadow in all aspects of your life. At noon, when the Sun is right above the crown of our heads, there is no shadow all around. May you have the shadowless faith and a life with good faith. As types of the true resurrection, God raised Lazarus (John 11:17-44), the only son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), and the only daughter of Jairus, the synagogue officials (Mark 5:21-24). Mourning and sorrow had turned to joy.

What's to rise will rise, what's to be destroyed will be destroyed
After the death of Jesus on the cross, tens of thousands of Christians were killed by the Roman Empire during a span of 300 years. They were burned, torn to death, and eaten by beasts. They could not bear living above ground so they even dug underground tunnels several hundred meters deep to hide themselves. These are called catacombs. It was so deep that even Roman soldiers who chased them could not find their way out and ended up dying there. However, 300 years later, in AD 313, the Roman emperor Constantine came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus and approved Christianity. Through the victory of Constantine's faith, Christianity was revived and the Roman Empire, which had persecuted Christians, was finally destroyed. The former Soviet Union had killed countless Christians for 75 years, but they perished in the end also.
The Lord of life couldn't stay buried underground. Just as the warm spring breeze revives the earth, please believe that the resurrection of our Lord will bring the winds of living hope upon all believers, our families, workplaces, businesses, churches, and our people. Our lives may have been stinking under the gloomy shadow until now. However, as His Word states, "Because I live, you will live also," may all of you evangelize by spreading the fragrance of the resurrection of the cross to the four corners of the world. May you live with the hope of everlasting life of resurrection. "Peace be with you!" May this gift of blessing and love of the resurrection be blazing up more and more in your hearts. With the new resurrection life, may you defeat the evil darkness and diseases in your lives and live healthy, spiritually and physically till we get to His kingdom of the last days. I pray and bless you in the name of Jesus that you work hard for God's kingdom, love and not hate each other. With the Lord's burning love and passion, become His own possession who will be zealous for good works for the sake of many people.
Easter Sunday Sermon - April 24, 2011