Luke 24:1–6

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

Why did Christianity happen?

Why did it take the shape it did?

Luke 24:21

We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. 

Defeat the pagan rule

Rebuild the temple

Establish God’s just rule on the earth.

Psalm 43:1

Declare me innocent, O God! Defend me against these ungodly people. Rescue me from these unjust liars.

Psalm 43:3–5

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. . . Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 

1 Corinthians 15:3–4

 . . . Christ died for our sins . . . He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 

Luke 24:21

We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.

Luke 24:27

 . . . Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 

Luke 24:32

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” 

Fact Number 1: The empty tomb

Fact Number 2: The Birth and Life of the church

Fact Number 3: We have a New Testament

Am I living out the power of the resurrection in my life?