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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date April 20, 2025
Easter Sunrise Service
Text Luke 24: 1-16
Pastor Paul Lehmann
Many skeptics will find it appropriate to put the resurrection into the category of the many ‘hoaxes” that we find on the internet. Fake news, if you will. Well, the reason the doubters keep trying to disprove the resurrection is, that if they acknowledge that Jesus not only died for our sins but rose again, they are forced to recognize the truth that we must either accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior. They find it troubling that so many people still believe in the resurrection.
A lot of different people in Jerusalem were troubled by the resurrection of Jesus. The Roman government was troubled because the events of the last few days were very unusual and they didn’t know what was going to happen
Matthew 27:51-52 tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth shook and the rocks split.
The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of their tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection, they went into Jerusalem and appeared to many people.
The Jews were troubled because they were still under the domination of Rome.
The ones who thought Jesus was going to lead a revolution were troubled because yet another so-called Messiah had failed them.
The ones who followed him, like His disciples, were troubled because they were left without His teaching, and they didn’t seem to remember what he said about his death and resurrection. They didn’t believe Mary when she told them he was alive. The Jewish leaders were troubled when the guards go back to their superiors and when they exclaimed what happened, they were paid money and were told –In Matt. 28:13-15 that they were to say, his disciples came during the night and stole him away while were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day, more than 2,000 years later. The two disciples (who were not of the 11 disciples), didn’t even know for sure that he had risen from the dead, until “their eyes were opened and they admitted that “their hearts burned within them” when he opened the scriptures to them.
We’re here today to celebrate what some would say — incorrectly — is the greatest hoax of all. From the very beginning, the authorities tried to dismiss the resurrection story as nothing more than a fabrication, but it’s a story that wouldn’t go away..
Our faith is founded on one specific historical event. Not a myth or a legend, but a specific event that took place in the first century that changed forever the meaning of everything that matters.
We believe that on this day almost 2000 years ago, an itinerant backwoods preacher named Jesus rose from the dead. Three days before he had died a violent death on a Roman cross. His lifeless body was placed in a tomb, sealed with a stone, guarded by a Roman centurion.
And then, on Sunday morning, the Spirit of God entered the sepulcher where he lay, and breathed life into his nostrils, and his heart began to pound and his blood began to flow and his eyes opened wide and he stood to his feet, fully alive. This was not a symbolic resurrection, as in: “As long as we remember him, isn’t he, in a sense, always with us?”
Neither was it a spiritual resurrection, as in: “After death all souls move to a higher plane of existence and that’s where Jesus is today.”
No, it was a physical, bodily resurrection. He had been as dead as dead can be, and now he was — is — alive forevermore, with the life of God flowing through him. And when news of his resurrection spread throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding towns and villages, the political authorities and religious leaders had only one thing to say about it.
Fake News. April Fools. A giant hoax. It never happened.
But in the days following, hundreds of people saw him in the flesh, fully alive, and they knew it was true.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE DISCIPLES
There are many compelling reasons to believe in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have been detailed in books like Who Moved the Stone, The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel “More than a Carpenter, and Evidence That Demands a Verdict.
The most compelling reason to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ can be seen in the disciples themselves.
When Jesus was arrested, they all scattered — all but John. They all feared they might be next in line, that their fate might be the same as his. The Apostle Peter denied that he ever knew him — not once, but three times.
Their response after his arrest was as cowardly as it could have been — but considering the circumstances, you really can’t blame them.
Jesus’ disciples ran in fear after his arrest, and after his death they remained in hiding. I’m sure they were trying to figure out: What next? What can we do? Will this thing blow over? Will we ever be safe? Can we go back to Galilee? Can we assume new identities? I’m sure they considered all the options. And then they began to hear the news, first from Mary, and then from some of the others. Jesus is alive. Could it really be? This is too good to be true! Dare we believe it?
Peter wanted to see for himself, so he got up and ran to the tomb. When he arrived he saw the strips of linen — the burial shroud — lying empty on the stone slab. And the Bible tells us that he walked away wondering to himself what had happened. [Luke 24:12] He really wanted to believe; it was just too good to be true.
But in the coming days they saw Jesus face-to-face. They talked to him. Walked with him. Ate with him. Thomas touched him, because he wanted to be sure that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
In the coming weeks Jesus appeared to his followers again and again, to as many as 500 people, proving to them that he is who he claimed to be: The Son of God, God in the flesh, the chosen Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Lord and Lords. And he alone has power over death and the grave.
What happened next is that these disciples experienced a radical transformation. They went from being a pack of scaredy-cats to being a tribe of roaring lions. They went from hiding under the cover of darkness in a secret room to boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus in the public square.
What could possibly have triggered such a transformation? A one-on-one real life encounter with the risen Christ.
They had seen him beaten beyond recognition. And they watched — from a distance — as he died. They knew he was dead. And then they saw him alive again. And it gave them a boldness that they had never had before.
The authorities said that it was a hoax. Fake news. That his disciples had stolen his body and hidden it in order to perpetuate this fantastic lie.
That might have been a plausible theory — had his disciples been able to leverage the resurrection myth into fame and fortune for themselves. But that’s not what happened. They didn’t achieve fame and fortune at all. In fact, almost all of them paid the ultimate price for the message they proclaimed: they paid with their lives.
- Andrew was crucified in Western Greece in 69 A.D.
- James was killed with a sword by Herod Agrippa.
- Philip was imprisoned in Egypt, then crucified in 54 A.D.
- Bartholomew was skinned alive and beheaded in India.
- The one known as James the Less was, at the age of 94, beaten to death with a club.
- Simon the Zealot was crucified in England in 74 A.D.
- Simon Peter — the denier — died in Rome during the reign of Nero. Tradition says that he requested to be crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy to die in the same manner as his master.
Why were these men who had once been completely paralyzed by fear suddenly willing to pay the ultimate price?
It wasn’t for a lie that they made up, you can be sure. It wasn’t for a hoax.
It was because they had experienced a one-on-one real-life encounter with the risen Christ. They saw it with their own eyes: a man who had been dead was alive again.
Very few people would be foolish enough to give their lives in exchange for a lie. But when you have encountered a resurrection up close and personal — as the disciples did — it changes you.
Charles Colson, head of a wonderful Prison Ministry today, and who once was involved in the Nixon Watergate scandal, says that when he is asked about the resurrection, he simply points out the number of people that were eyewitnesses to it. But when he is asked, “How do you know they were telling the truth? He answers to that from an unlikely source: WATERGATE. John Dean turned state evidence after only two weeks. That’s all the longer the cover-up could last. The lie could be held together only two weeks! Then everybody else around the president “jumped ship” in order to save themselves. All they were facing was embarrassment, and maybe prison. Nobody’s life was at stake.
But the disciples were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, and execution. Every single one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised form the dead Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded stoned, or crucified? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false or a lie. This is still going on today in so many countries, where Christians are persecuted and imprisoned for their faith, or killed. This is the reality of what the Rison Christ does to change and impower a person. He brings deliverance, strength and power to face anything. Because they KNOW that they have ETERNAL LIFE.
There is a lot of convincing proof that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. If you have doubts about it, a sermon like this probably isn’t enough; I encourage you, then, to dig a little deeper and discover for yourself the consensus among scholars.
For me, the most convincing proof has always been the radical transformation of the disciples that took place in the days following the resurrection and continues to change lives today. The results are:
A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE RISEN CHRIST, PEACE WITH GOD, ASSURANCE OF ETERNAL LIFE, A BRAND NEW START EVERY DAY, YOU WILL NEVER BE LEFT ALONE, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU STRENGTH TO FACE ANYTHING.