Jesus' resurrection can't just be about giving us hope for a resurrection from the dead - the Jews already knew that (John 11:24). "Jesus is saying that resurrection isn't about coming back from the dead...it's about who HE is." In Luke 24, as Jesus' walks with His disciples, we see that Jesus rose again to unmask the lie of Satan: He reveals that His person is LIFE, a life stronger than death.
1. The resurrection means something ground-breaking. In what way? Jesus wants us to redefine what resurrection hope is.
The resurrection means something ground-breaking. We have a sense of that intuitively.
A transformation has happened, and that means that there is more to the resurrection than meets the eye. Something has changed, something’s different to what it was before, but what exactly is it? What is the resurrection?
It can’t be just the fact that a man comes alive after he’s died – it has to be something more than that; that’s already happened before… to prove that John gives us the account of Lazarus being raised by Jesus from the dead after 4 days in the tomb…
It can’t be that it gives us hope for a resurrection – it has to be something more than that; the Jews already had that… Martha says to Jesus, I know we will rise again on the last day.
Jesus wants us to redefine what resurrection hope is.
2. How does Jesus define Resurrection Hope? "I AM the Resurrection and the Life"
John 11
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.” Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
There’s a very important transition Jesus makes here; and it can be easy to gloss over. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies…”. Nothing out of the ordinary with that; that’s in line with what we would think about resurrection: If you die, then you will be brought back to life.
But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here, because He goes on to say: “Everyone who lives and believes in Me WILL NEVER DIE.”
Do you see what He’s doing here? He’s redefining our idea of life and death. He is the resurrection and the life: “The ones who live and believe in Him have life, even while they are dying… in fact, even if they die, they still have life.”
Here’s what Jesus is saying when He says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”: He’s saying the Resurrection isn’t about coming back from the dead… it’s about who He is. He is Life and Life never dies… Life might appear to die, but it cannot be snuffed out, it will prove to be ongoing, to be still alive, to be eternal… it will resurrect. Not that it will die and then come back to life… Jesus says: it will NEVER DIE… it will never lose its life. Life… Jesus… is a higher authority than death.
Here’s the subtle but revolutionary distinction that Jesus is wanting to make; it’s at the heart of the Gospel: Jesus is Life, and death cannot not take away Life. In other words, the process that we call dying cannot actually take Him away. If Jesus is Life, then even when He dies, He still is Life. Life can never be taken away from Him, He can never be separated from Himself. Death is not an authority over Him.
SO when Jesus says, “I am the resurrection”, He’s saying that He is the proof that death cannot take away Life. That He has authority over death; that is resurrection. Jesus is Resurrection and Life.
3. WHAT DOES THE REDEFINITION OF RESURRECTION LIFE MEAN FOR US? Dispelling of The Lie (rejection of worldly lens towards radical trust in The Father)
Jesus spends all of His ministry trying to get His disciples to see that Life and Resurrection are defined by who He is… but it doesn’t land for them… He is the Revealer of Truth, but there’s “someone” else that is working very hard to hide the Truth from them.
Luke 8:11-12
“Now this is the parable: the seed is the word of God. And those beside the road are the ones who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.
Luke 24:15-17
While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they came to a stop, looking sad.
And then they proceed to tell Jesus about Himself and His own story. The very same story that He told them on numerous occasions must happen. So, Jesus hears them out and then comes back with these words:
Luke 24:25-26
“You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?”
There’s clearly a blindness over the disciples that is preventing them from understanding what Jesus is saying. Someone is concealing the Truth from them.
What can’t they see? Why is it necessary for these things to happen?
Why must Jesus suffer? Why must He be handed over, be betrayed by someone close, abandoned by His closest friends, humiliated, put to death by suffering as a criminal naked on a cross… and then rise from the dead?
Why must all these things happen?
Jesus is saying that unless these things happen we will not see that He Himself is the Resurrection and the Life. We’re so caught up in Satan’s lie that unless He suffers, the lie will never be completely unmasked.
And we will never be able to see Jesus as He truly is, Resurrection and Life, in order to receive Him… to receive Life Himself.
This is the lie of Satan: God cannot be trusted. God is not in control. God is not good.
This is how he maintains the lie: by convincing us that suffering and death are proof that we can’t trust God. If we encounter suffering and death in this world and in our lives, then it must mean God is not in control and He is not good.
So we need to do everything in our power to avoid suffering and death ourselves. If God cannot be trusted, we need to take matters into our own hands.
To unmask the lie over humanity: Jesus must suffer as a human… must allow Satan to throw the kitchen sink at Him, and then emerge with just as much life as He had beforehand, fully confident and trusting in the Goodness of His Father. Knowing that His Father has always been in control and that Satan never had any power over Him.
This is Truth: Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life for us. He has unmasked the lie for our sake, so that we might know Life in Him… this is why He came. It’s His Eternal Life that He came to give us, not a temporary life of our own choosing.
Jesus - the Resurrection and the Way, the Truth, the Life – is the very definition of Life. It’s only as His Life exposes all our false ways of “living” that we can turn to Him and walk in His Way, the Way that is Truth and Life.
This is the reason the Apostle John talks about Jesus as the Light of the world, coming to us to expose and dispel the darkness so that we can walk in the Light of Life.
And since Jesus cannot die, He is forever working to reveal Himself to us to make us alive in Him.
While there are still people believing in Satan’s lie he will continue manufacturing it, he’ll keep propping it up… but he can’t keep it up forever, and the Good News is that Jesus is Perseverance Incarnate… He will not die… the lie will continue to be dispelled; and Jesus will not stop until it has been completely unmasked.
And that’s exactly what we see here in Luke 24. Picking up on the dialogue Jesus is having with the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus… we see that Jesus will keep chipping away at the lie until it crumbles.
Luke 24:27-31
Then beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.
And they approached the village where they were going, and He gave the impression that He was going farther. And so they strongly urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.”
So He went in to stay with them. And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
Now before we start wondering where Jesus went, there’s something incredible that is happening here. It speaks to what happens when the Truth is revealed and accepted: When people see and accept the Truth that Jesus reveals, that Truth prepares the way (spoiler alert) for the very Spirit of Jesus to come into them.
Just because Jesus disappears and can’t be seen anymore, doesn’t mean that God’s not there, or that He can’t be trusted; or that He’s not always working for their good; this is the Truth that the disciples are coming to know. Satan’s lie is crumbling.
Luke 17:20-21
“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
And Paul, in Romans says,
Romans 10:6-8
“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”…”
Jesus and Paul are both saying the same thing here:
As soon as the Truth (that is, Jesus) is revealed to a person, He (Jesus, Life Himself) begins to to dwell in them by His Spirit.
4. Jesus has revealed Himself to be Resurrection and Life for us.
The resurrection tells us in bold letters that until we can say that we see and realise a 1-to-1 likeness with Jesus in our own lives, then we’re missing out on something. He is Life, and if there are elements of Him that we don’t seem to have, then there are still areas of our lives that we are believing a lie. There’s still more that He has for us.
What is Jesus wanting us to see and receive more of? His Father… to know that He rules over all in Jesus… that the Kingdom is HERE… that we are His CHILDREN... that He is holding no good thing back from us… that we can live with reckless abandon in following Him and loving others… that we can know more of His Life if we will believe in Him and turn from The Lie in every shape and form.
You’ll know areas of your life that you’re believing The Lie because you’ll be sad and downcast in them even while the very Spirit of Jesus is within you wanting to commune with you; wanting you to align your life with Him and experience the Truth of His Life. It’s not a guilt trip, if there are areas in our lives where we truly feel lack hope or joy, it’s an invitation to know Life within you as you expose the Lie in the light of who Jesus is.
We’re going to spend the next 6 months exploring what that journey looked like for the early church as we go through Acts. But let’s not just read and hear about it, let’s enter into the Kingdom of Light that is here right now…
Abundance… divine providence… the complete self-giving love of God. This is the divine nature He wants us to partake in… Jesus says in effect, “Unless you eat and drink MY reality, the only True reality, you do not have Life in you. You are allowing Satan to rob you of your joy in God… it’s foolishness” (His words, not mine).
It’s very different to wishful thinking… it’s very different to optimism…
IF you believe a lie, it will become your cage. BUT if you move against a lie towards Truth… it will fail (it has to, it has no substance), and you will come into Truth.
5. Breaking Bread
And as we take communion we’re going to remember two things:
First, that just as Jesus broke bread at the feeding of the thousands, we are called to trust in the abundant provision and goodness of God even if there is a lie of scarcity pervading our society. We are called to reject the lie that we have to keep for ourselves rather than giving of ourselves.
Second, we’re casting our minds to Jesus on the cross… we’re rejecting Satan’s lie that the Father has forsaken His Son. The fullness of Satan’s lie is reached on the cross; he’s screaming from the rooftops, “Look, how can God be good? See what happens to those who trust in Him?”. We’re here to reject that lie, to align ourselves with Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life. To acknowledge that Jesus has disarmed Satan and his Lie, that He’s made a public display of him, having triumphed over him on the cross.
As we take the elements we are committing our lives to the Truth of Jesus, to conforming ourselves to His image, to living and believing in Him as we walk in the light of who He is.