The Day Death Died
James Merritt
Luke 24:1-12
Introduction
1. On Tuesday, December 31st, 2019, something got released into the world and it hasn’t been eliminated yet. As I write these words, it has killed two and a half million people around the world. We are doing everything we can if not to eliminate it completely, to negate its power and eradicate it. Two-thousand years ago on Sunday, something else got released into the world and it will never be eliminated and its power can never be negated or eradicated. What was it?
2. Well, it is something that two and a half billion people celebrate especially one day of the year, but actually every day of the year. One of the things that makes Christianity so unique compared to every other religion and faith movement in history is it traces its origin to this one particular event that happened in one moment on one day in history. Every religion - Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam doesn’t apply, but because of one single day, there was no such thing as a church and the next day there was.
3. To fully appreciate that day you have to go back two days earlier to a common place event that actually took place thirty-thousand times in the Roman Empire. It was a crucifixion and Christian’s call it ‘‘Good Friday,’’ but on that particular Friday they didn’t think there was anything good about it. It was a day that a king called Herod, a ruler called Pontius Pilot, religious groups known as Pharisees and Sadducees, and the most powerful army in the world, the soldiers of the Roman Empire thought that they had finally eliminated the greatest threat to their power and their influence when they crucified a man named Jesus.
4. Even eleven men called ‘‘disciples’’ who had spent every day of their lives for three years with this man, who thought he was the Messiah and the Son of God and even his mother, Mary, thought he was dead and gone forever. When they went to bed on that Friday night, they were mourning not j ...
James Merritt
Luke 24:1-12
Introduction
1. On Tuesday, December 31st, 2019, something got released into the world and it hasn’t been eliminated yet. As I write these words, it has killed two and a half million people around the world. We are doing everything we can if not to eliminate it completely, to negate its power and eradicate it. Two-thousand years ago on Sunday, something else got released into the world and it will never be eliminated and its power can never be negated or eradicated. What was it?
2. Well, it is something that two and a half billion people celebrate especially one day of the year, but actually every day of the year. One of the things that makes Christianity so unique compared to every other religion and faith movement in history is it traces its origin to this one particular event that happened in one moment on one day in history. Every religion - Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam doesn’t apply, but because of one single day, there was no such thing as a church and the next day there was.
3. To fully appreciate that day you have to go back two days earlier to a common place event that actually took place thirty-thousand times in the Roman Empire. It was a crucifixion and Christian’s call it ‘‘Good Friday,’’ but on that particular Friday they didn’t think there was anything good about it. It was a day that a king called Herod, a ruler called Pontius Pilot, religious groups known as Pharisees and Sadducees, and the most powerful army in the world, the soldiers of the Roman Empire thought that they had finally eliminated the greatest threat to their power and their influence when they crucified a man named Jesus.
4. Even eleven men called ‘‘disciples’’ who had spent every day of their lives for three years with this man, who thought he was the Messiah and the Son of God and even his mother, Mary, thought he was dead and gone forever. When they went to bed on that Friday night, they were mourning not j ...
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