3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").

17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

There is a story about Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, a powerful Russian Communist leader, who took part in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda , and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today.

        He took a journey from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.
        An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of the men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium until one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"
        I say to you this morning: CHRIST IS RISEN! I am convinced that Jesus the Christ lived, was killed, buried and that He rose from the dead and will come again in glory. I want to give you my top three reasons why I believe in the resurrection.
        First I believe in the resurrection because somebody told me about it. Some might say that maybe my source was off. The truth of the matter is that most of what we know is simply because somebody told us about it. How do you know that Columbus discovered America in 1492. Were you there? No, you were not there, but there were people there who witnessed and wrote about it and that is how we know about it. We have far more historical proof of the resurrection than we do thousands of pieces of information which we routinely accept as fact every single day. If we are going to take a stand on something, then why not the historic testimony of countless persons throughout the ages who have declared the validity of the resurrection.
        One such witness was Mary who went to the tomb on that first Easter morning with a heavy heart. Her Master, her teacher, her friend had passed away. All of life was now in doubt. She stood at the entrance to that tomb weeping. And then she meets the gardener and he calls her by name. “Mary,” he says. Can you imagine the look in her eyes and she turns and looks into his. Do you remember what she said? “Rabboni!” She yells. “Teacher!” And from what John tells us she must have leaped into his arms. Jesus tells her not to hold onto him just yet.
        Undoubtedly, there are people who are bothered by the fact they cannot prove that when Mary told the Disciples “I have seen the Lord” she spoke the truth. But the truth is that in this life you will never have more proof than the testimony of those first century witnesses. There are no photographs. What we know of it is simply what people have told us about it.
        The second reason that I believe in the resurrection is that it has stood the test of time. A lot of things start off good but soon fizzle out.
It was not something that was here today and gone tomorrow. As long as there is life on earth there will be people talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
        Third, I believe in the resurrection, because I have experienced it. The first century disciples did not believe in the resurrection because they could explain it; they believed in the resurrection because they had experienced it. One whom they had known in the flesh and had seen die was now alive and with them.
        The best proof of the resurrection is not in what the witnesses said that they saw, but in how they responded to what they saw. A frightened band of disciples huddled together in a house with the door barred. That is the scene before the resurrection. A powerful band of mighty witnesses thrust out into the world. That is the scene post-resurrection. It has been estimated that by the end of the first century over a half million people had come under the Christian banner. That is the power of the resurrection.
        We can sing the great hymns of Easter, we can hear again the familiar stories of scripture, we can enjoy the lilies. But the real power of Easter is the way that people's lives are moved from death to life, from sealed tomb to open doorway, from despair to hope, from the old ways to new opportunities. That is Easter. That is resurrection. I believe in the resurrection because I have seen the God of resurrection at work. I have seen the risen Christ raise people from the death of despair to the joy of new life.
        I conclude with a true story about a young boy whose father died in a car wreck when he was twelve years old. He read it in the newspaper before anyone got word to him to tell him about it. When he saw that picture of the family car smashed-up on the front page of the newspaper… and read that his dad had died in that accident, he was thrust immediately and painfully into the shocked numbness of deep grief.
        Strangely, one of his very first feelings were those of guilt. He had remembered how some months before at a family picnic he was showing off with a baseball. At one point he got careless and threw wildly; it hit his dad in the hand and broke his thumb. The young boy felt horrible. He said to himself, “What a terrible son I am! I have caused my dad great pain.”
        It seemed that was all he could remember after his father's death —the pain he caused his dad. Finally, the young boy went to see his pastor and told him about the deep feelings of guilt and about breaking his dad’s thumb. The boy writing his account years later says “I’ll never forget how my pastor handled that. He was so great. He came around the desk with tears in his eyes. He sat down across from me and said:” “Now, Jim, you listen to me. If your dad could come back to life for five minutes and be right here with us… and if he knew you were worried about that, what would he say to you?” “He would tell me to quit worrying about that,” Jim said. “Well, all right,” the minister said, “then you quit worrying about that right now. Do you understand me?” “Yes sir,” he said… and he did.
        That minister was saying: “You are forgiven. Accept the forgiveness… and make a new start with your life.” The young boy did make a new start. His name was James W. Moore, the author of over 40 books on Christian living and the one time pastor of the 7,000 member St. Luke's United Methodist Church of Houston.
        That’s Easter. The Risen Lord comes back to life… and assures the disciples that they are forgiven. Remember this...
- Peter had denied his Lord three times – yet he was forgiven.
- Thomas had doubted – yet he was forgiven.
- All the disciples had forsaken Him – yet they were all forgiven and used powerfully by God.
        Christ came back, forgave them, and resurrected them. He came back to share with them… He comes today, this morning, to share with you the joy, the encouragement and the forgiveness of Easter.
        Why do I believe in resurrection? I believe in it because somebody told me about it. I believe in it because it has stood the test of time. But supremely I believe in it because I have seen it in the life of others and I have experienced it myself. It is why I can stand here this morning and shout: CHRIST IS RISEN! (congregational response again: HE IS RISEN INDEED!)

This sermon was heavily adapted from the sermon Why I Believe In The Resurrection, by Brett Blair and staff, ChristianGlobe Network, 2001, taken from www.esermons.com with permission.