Three women were making their way to the garden tomb on that first Easter morning with the intention of completing the embalming process on the body of Jesus. Just before arriving, it suddenly dawned on them that there was an impediment, an obstacle, which would hinder them from accomplishing their purpose. There was a great stone, weighing around two tons, that had been rolled over the entrance to seal the tomb that had to be rolled away, and they knew they couldn’t perform the task. This caused them to ask in Mark 16:3, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"

However, to their utter amazement, when they arrived at the tomb, they found that the huge stone had been tossed away from the entrance. Then two angels announced that Jesus was not there but had risen just as He said. The Stone tomb was no longer a place of doom, but, as it were, a birthing womb for a new man and a new creation.  

Luke's Gospel begins in Luke chapter one with an angelic announcement of the birth of one who will prepare the way for the Messiah, who will save his people from their sins. In Luke Two angels announced to lowly shepherds: “unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.” Then Luke's Gospel ends with an angelic announcement of a birth, the birth of a new creation, and the One who will prepare a way, and a place, for his people to live with God, and for God, and He with, them forever!

 I. The Third Day of the Old World Would Become the First Day of the New World! – Luke 23:56

In His resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth did not usher in a new religion, a new morality, or a new way of salvation, but a new creation.

We notice how Luke signifies the end of the old world and the birth of the new with the last verse from Lk. 23:56: “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

The Old Covenant time period fully comes to an end in verse 56. This would be the last Sabbath to be observed on the last day of the week. The Christian Sabbath of the New Covenant and New Creation would begin in the resurrection. Notice Luke 24:1:"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.”

Luke's Gospel ends at the resurrection account with nothing less than the end of one world, or age, when Jesus' beaten and battered dead body is placed in the tomb, and the beginning of the dawn of a new day and a new creation on the first day of the week.

Up to the resurrection of Christ, in the Old Covenant, man had worked six days and then rested on the seventh. When the tomb became the womb of the new creation, the believer in Christ now rests and feasts on the first day of the week and works from, not for, or toward, a place of rest! We now celebrate as the people of God on the first day of the week because we belong to a new world, a new period of time, a new creation characterized by resurrection life, love, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

2 Cors. 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

The normal interpretation of this passage is merely a transformation of the individual who is "in Christ." Paul certainly has this in mind, but that is only a part of the truth. Dr. J.G. Vos, “It is not in the first place the interiority of the subject that has undergone the change, although that, of course, is not to be excluded. The whole surrounding world has assumed a new aspect and complexion."

The old creation began to come to an end, as the new creation dawned on the third day! The resurrection of Jesus didn't merely occur on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1), but it was literally the first day of the new creation characterized by resurrection life!

Never since the creation of the world had a day dawned with so much power and newness! The third day begins the first day of the new creation. Jesus the God-Man is resurrected and humanity is glorified in constant union with deity. 1Tim 2:5, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"

The stone tomb became like a womb out of which the new creation was born into this world on the third day in the Person of Jesus Christ --the glorified and resurrected God-Man. This new day was filled with fantastic new things and unbelievable new surprises. For the first century church, experiencing resurrection life brought a new impulse, a new vitality, a new power, a new vigor, a new movement, a new momentum, a new excitement, a new and unbelievable joy, and a new exhilaration to life.

In Luke 24, we see the newness of this new day and new creation revealed in (1) a new life, (2) a new understanding, (3) a new man, (4) a new power, and (5) a new worship.

II. The New Creation Begins With a Reconfiguration of Death by the Power of a New Life!

Luke 24:5, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."

John 11:25-26, "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

1Cors. 15:51, "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,"

1Thess. 4:14, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep."

Prior to the resurrection of Christ, the place where the dead were buried was called a "necropolis" -- a "city of the dead"; after the stone tomb became the new creation’s womb, death's name for the believer and death's place was reconfigured. Death became known as falling asleep. The Necropolis, or city of the dead, became a cemetery, or a "koimeterion." This word comes from the Greek word koimao, (koy-mah'-o) which means "to put to sleep." Our word dormitory, a place to sleep comes from this word. Death becomes a dormitory: a changing room, where this mortal puts on immortality.

Death is no longer a prison house. Instead it has become a passageway to glory for all of those that have fallen in faith at the feet of King Jesus. Death is no longer a potentate over the kingdom of skulls and skeletons, but instead it has been made the porter transporting all of those who die in Jesus safely into His presence.

The rock has been rolled away. Death will come for me if Jesus tarries, but death cannot keep me, because the door has been removed. It is still open and cannot ever be closed. It is a passageway and not a prison.

III. The New Creation Brings a Reorientation of Thinking So We See the Big Story with a New Understanding! --(Read Luke 24:25-32)

A. The Day the Son Came Out of the Tomb the Promises of God were Fulfilled – Acts 13:32, 33a: “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus…”

What Paul declares in 13:32, is reaffirmed twice again by Luke, the human author of the books of Luke and Acts, (read Lk 24:44; Lk. 4:21) and that is "all the Scriptures are about the Lord Jesus Christ, even where there is no explicit prediction. The meaning of all the Scriptures is unlocked by the death and resurrection of Jesus.” (Graeme Goldsworthy)

 2 Corinthians 1:20: "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

Jesus probably said to those two disciples on the Emmaus road, “The promised Messiah was to be the singular seed of Abraham through whom the Seed would become multi-national and the One in whom all the nations will be blessed. The Passover Lamb and the First-fruits of the harvest was all about the Messiah. He was the Ultimate Moses leading an Exodus not out of the world but into the world to the ends of the earth to make disciples of all nations! He is the True Israel, the Final High Priest and the mediator of a new and better covenant. He would have said to these two the Emmaus Road persons: “All the sacrifices, the tabernacle, priesthood of the Old Testament were pictures and promises of the coming Messiah and have found their meaning and fulfillment in Him. He would tell them that Messiah was the true and final Temple not made with hands – the Mount Zion itself as the focus of the name and presence of God. Messiah was the Son of David, the messianic King, who was concealed behind the basin and towel of servant-hood and of obedience unto death.

Jesus is the criterion by which all scripture is read. In other words, Jesus fulfills and interprets all the Bible for us. He said, in essence, "I am going to fill up with meaning everything you read here. I am it. Without me in your life, this book is locked shut."

IV. The New Creation Begins With a Resurrection of Jesus, Who is the First-fruits of a New Man!

A. Christ is the First-fruit of What our Individual New Man will be Like -- Luke 24:33-43

C.S. Lewis explained that "in Christ a new kind of man appeared: and the new kind of life which began in Him is to be put into us."

Jesus appears to them not as a scary ghost, or a spooky spirit, but as a new and glorified man, able to pass through locked doors, eat fish, and be touched! What sin, suffering, and death do to afflict and destroy our mortal bodies will be permanently cured and healed in Jesus the New Man.

"For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality" (1 Cor 15:53).

B. Christ is the First-fruit and the Head of a Corporate New Man!

Eph 2:15, "... by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace."

1 Cor 15:20-23, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. (21) For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming."

First-fruits is a reference to the Law of Moses regarding first-fruit offerings of grain, sheep, etc. These offerings were representative of the total harvest and the entire flock. They were token expressions of thanksgiving that the whole had been, or would be given to God.

Christ's resurrection is the first-fruits of the total resurrection harvest. His resurrection and ascension into Heaven declared, "Get ready, there is a bumper crop to be harvested.

V. The New Creation Blesses With a Relationship of a Now Presence and a New Power!

Luke 24:49, "And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

The Resurrection of Jesus isn't just a cold theological fact. It is the way to life abundant. It is the way to power for living that comes from an empty cross, empty tomb, and a Holy Spirit?filled experience in the Upper Room!

In the final hours before his death on the cross, Jesus tells His disciples basically two things: One, that He is leaving them. Two, that He is sending them the Holy Spirit: "whom I will send to you from the Father" (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit, also named the Advocate and the Spirit of Truth, is designated by name and pronouns twenty-six times. Fifteen times Jesus tells them he is leaving; twenty-six times he refers to the Spirit that he and the Father are sending.

"I am leaving"...."I am sending...." Jesus is leaving, the Holy Spirit is coming. They are not going to see him again. But the leaving is not abandonment (John 14:18). He will not be out of reach (14:13.) He is not walking off, forgetful or distracted.

The Holy Spirit is coming and He will be in them, and doing in them what Jesus did among them. The Holy Spirit, God's way of being present with us, will make their life and work continuous with Jesus' life and work. The way God was present to them in Jesus, God will be present to others in them.

Then we read in John 20:22, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"

VI. The New Creation Brings a Rehearsal in the Present of the Future that Lies Ahead by a New Worship! -- Luke 24:52-53

The resurrection was the shattering of history by a creative act of God Almighty. God was doing something comparable only with what He had done at the first creation. This was the beginning of a new era for the universe; the decisive turning-point for the human race. In the resurrection the new age had arrived, and this stupendous miracle signified the storming of history and the transforming of the world.

The Resurrection was evidence that there had now appeared, in the midst of time, life of a new dimension and the baptism of eternity. The heralds of the Resurrection were not merely preaching it as a fact: they were living in it as in a new country. They had received a Kingdom which could not be shaken.

After they had been instructed by Jesus, and learning of the hope of the new life, the new understanding, the new man, and the new power, the disciples began the new creation with new worship: "And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (Luke 24:52-53)

As Luke's Gospel begins in the temple of God, so it ends in the temple. The disciples are now worshipping Jesus, not through signs, symbols, and types as they formerly did in the temple of God, but, now, they are worshipping Christ, as the one all the Old Covenant signs, symbols, and types pointed to. The disciples' worship is now in Christ, for Christ, and Christ-Centered! The temple of God was now present in the people of God because of the Spirit of God. The disciples would no longer go to the temple for circumcision of children, or to offer bloody sacrifices, but would now practice the worship of the New Creation through preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and would offer continuous sacrifices of praise for what Jesus has done!

In his book, One New Man, Hebrew, Reuven Doron tells his testimony of wrestling with God and seeking God until he finally came to the end of himself. Reuven was teaching Hebrew to a Scottish, blue-eyed, blond man. One day Reuven asked him why he, a Scottish Gentile, was studying Hebrew. The man answered, "I want to be able to read the Bible in its original language." Reuven laughed. "Why do you want to read the Bible? It's just a bunch of tales."

This man and Reuven began to have long conversations. Reuven asked many questions. "Is there really a God?" "If this God is as personal as you say He is, how do I get to know Him?" The man would respond, "Seek His face." Night after night this agnostic, secular, Israeli-born Jew, who had-served in the Six Day War in 1967, would kneel in the tall grass behind his house, crying out to God.

Finally, one night alone in the dark, living far from his native Israel, he began to count the cost. Reuven later wrote, "Truly, Jesus is indeed a major stumbling block for a Jewish person. The veil upon our eyes is truly thick and it is even made thicker by the atrocities we have suffered for centuries at the hand of Christians. But now, I knew I needed a Savior. I was beginning to understand that there was no way to be reconciled to the Father without one. So I offered up the last question I found in my soul, that question that was hidden deep beneath the pile of mental and philosophical garbage that first had to be spewed out. From deep within me welled up a cry that reached the heavens. This one came, not from a calculating and manipulating mind, but born from desperate need, from deep conviction and an intense longing for a living, loving God. I could not escape any longer asking Him this one last question: 'Do I need him? Do I need the Nazarene in order to come to You?' This question came from genuine anger and frustration. I felt cornered by God. Trapped between my need and His love, I had no way of escape.

"This time God answered! Out of heaven came an arrow of revelation piercing through the darkness of the night, the world, and my soul. His word now sparked my spirit alive with a blaze of truth, and He said, 'Yes' and 'Amen! You need the Nazarene!"'