By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read: Matthew 28: 1-10; John 20:12,18-23.
“Yes, He is risen! I’m so glad He has gotten up! He got up, so I can get up! All of us who believe can know this! He got up, so I can get up! Because He lives, I live! When I was still dead because of my sin and trespasses, and because of His Death and Resurrection, I’ve been set free and delivered. I just can’t thank Him enough every day.”
“Father, this morning we thank You. We thank You, Lord, for the plan of Salvation that was put together long before the Earth had even spun the first time on its axis…I thank You, Lord, for the Plan that You had to redeem fallen Mankind who had fallen in the Garden of Eden. I thank You, Lord, that You were willing to send Your Son, to put on flesh like ours, to stand in our place, giving His life, that we might live. Lord, we thank You for the spotless Lamb of God. We thank You for the sacrifice that was made. This morning we thank You and we celebrate this morning the historical fact, the Truth, that He got up again on the Third Day. Death couldn’t hold Him; the grave couldn’t keep Him; and satan couldn’t defeat Him. I thank You, Lord, that today we can stand in Your House and celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ in this country. Amen.”
“I think this is one of my all-time favorites of all the Sundays that I get to preach because it is a good reminder of what Jesus did for us. In fact, there is no other religion on the face of the planet that their Prophet, Savior, got up again after death. There’s none other. When I looked, somebody added its what separates Christianity from all the rest. I have to remind others that my Savior lives and is alive and well.
When Bryson was a little boy, of three or four years old, we taught him the song, “Jesus is Alive and Well”, which he sang as “Jesus is Alive in a well.” Others told him that is not quite right, but I told them, you’d better know it’s right. He’s in a well if we’re in a well. He’s in the fire if we’re in a fire. Today, Jesus is alive and is with us now, for the grave couldn’t hold Him.
We also find out that Jesus, while walking with His disciples, He was teaching and talking with them. They’re watching as He opened blind eyes again. Watching as dead men live again, deaf ears begin to heal. We see that leprosy goes away. We’re watching as small loaves and fishes are feeding multitudes of people, and seeing how Jesus is changing things everywhere. He even says to us, His Body will be taken and destroyed by wicked men, and in three days, He will take it up again.
There’s coming a day when sinful man will do their best to destroy His Body, but He states, “ I will get up again.” Then the day comes. Tried by them in a mock trial, beaten beyond recognition, forced to carry a cross up a hill at Calvary, and then nailed to it. And as His Blood begins to run out of His Veins and His Life begins to wane in His Body, He looks up into the Heavens and says, “Lay not this sin to their charge.”
The Bible says after so many hours, He just gave up the Ghost, as He allowed His Spirit to leave His Body.
The enemy thought he had won something but couldn’t even kill Jesus. Jesus is the One Who decided when enough was enough because He’s never lost a battle.
The problem now for Jesus is that His Body has been in the grave for several days and we find the disciples didn’t know what to do. They had put all their belief in this one Man. It seemed to them like it was all over, and now He was dead. In these four synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, some just went back to fishing because they didn’t know what else to do. Some had hidden in a house. The women had gathered spices to anoint the dead body of Christ. All their hopes and expectations were dashed. They talked over the question of how they could get the sealed stone removed from the tomb to go in and do that. They all had underestimated Jesus. Even in the earlier boat experience, it was, who’s going to save us? Jesus was already walking upon what they were fearing from that storm. What more could they do?
