The Reality and the Relevance of the Resurrection

Transcription

1 The Reality and the Relevance of the Resurrection 1 He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] That is the oldest greeting among Christians we know about. Not just on Easter, but on every Sunday they would greet one another that way. The first would say, He is risen! and the other would chime in He is risen indeed! So let s try that again. He is risen! [He is risen indeed] Now every time you hear me or any other believer say, He is risen you know how to respond. He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] It was 25 years ago last month, at the height of Desert Storm, that Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, was killed in action. He had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, "I can't begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed anger and loss. For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great." But 3 days after she received that message, the telephone rang. The voice on the other end said, "Mom, it's me. I'm alive." Ruth Dillow said, "I couldn't believe it at first. But then I recognized his voice, and he really was alive." The message she had received was all a mistake! She said, "I laughed, I cried, I felt like turning cartwheels, because my son whom I had thought was dead, was really alive. I'm sure none of you can even begin to understand how I felt." Probably not, but those who followed the Lord Jesus would know exactly what she felt. They experienced the same emotions themselves. One day they watched their best friend and teacher being nailed to a cross. They witnessed His pain as He cried out, "I thirst!" and "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" They listened as finally He bowed His head and said, "It is finished!" and "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." They watched as His body was taken from the cross and buried. All their hopes and dreams were buried with Him. Friday night and all day Saturday they mourned, until finally, on "the first day of the week, early in the morning," the scripture says, some women made their way along the path that led to His tomb, wondering who would roll away the stone for them. But when they arrived, they found that the stone had already been rolled away. An angel there told them, "You're looking in the wrong place. You're looking for Jesus among the dead. He is not dead. He is alive. He is risen, even as He said!" "He is risen!" [He is risen indeed!] That is what we celebrate this morning. When all the evidence is in we're convinced that Jesus is alive. He is risen from the dead! And what a difference His resurrection has made! Notable author Hank Hanegraaff writes, The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest feat in the annals of human history. It is the very capstone in the arch of Christianity. Without it, everything else in our faith crumbles. When we fully comprehend the significance of resurrection, our lives will be revolutionized. Without resurrection, there is no hope. Indeed without resurrection, there would be no Christianity. (from Christian Research Report, Vol.13, Issue 2, May 2000) We need to come to a conclusion today that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a fairy tale, more than a legend, and more than some religious symbol. It is a historical fact that is indisputable. In fact, Billy Graham said that, There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three. How can Billy Graham make such a statement? Is there really so much evidence that makes believing in the resurrection more than a leap of blind faith? We can see what an incredible FEAT the resurrection was by following the acronym FEAT. While each of these points could be studied in more detail, we ll just stay on each point briefly, but enough to make the point.

2 - F is for Fatal Torment Dr. Norman Geisler writes, For the Resurrection to have any significance, Jesus had to be dead first. (When Skeptics Ask. p. 120). Some have concluded that Jesus just passed out and revived later in His tomb. But that s absurd! Christ suffered horribly. In just a few words let me explain how horribly He suffered and eventually died. He began His suffering at the Garden of Gethsemane where Luke 22:44 says, his sweat was like drops of blood falling the ground, and His suffering continued throughout His interrogations before Caiaphas, where He was hit in the face, spit upon and beaten. His suffering continued as he was taken to Pilate, where he was flogged, given a crown of thorns, spit upon and struck on the head again and again. The flogging alone was so brutal that it is amazing He lasted until His crucifixion. Then there was the crucifixion itself. The Roman system of crucifixion had been fine-tuned to produce maximum pain. In fact, the word excruciating (literally means out of the cross ) had to be invented to fully codify its horror. (Resurrection. p. 19) They used 5 to 7 inch spikes to hammer Him to the wooden beams of the cross. John 19:31-37 gives the account of the guards breaking the legs of the thieves to hasten their death by asphyxiation at the request of the religious leaders so that the bodies would not be left on the crosses during the Sabbath. But when they came to Jesus, He was already dead and they speared His side, through His lung and into His heart. This was a practiced thrust used by the Romans and produced the proof of death, a sudden flow of blood and water. If he wasn t dead already, He would be dead after that. Mark 15:44-45 NIV says, Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. He was dead. No doubt about it. Romans were killing machines. They would not make such an error. As a matter of fact, if they did the soldier would pay with his life. You can be sure Jesus was dead! F is for the Fatal Torment. What a FEAT God accomplished! - E is for the Empty Tomb In Matthew 27:51-61 it gives the account of Jesus burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, placed Jesus body in his own private tomb. This account also says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the tomb, so they knew where it was. The next day the Sanhedrin came up with a plan to specifically thwart any scheme the disciples might have of stealing Jesus body and faking a resurrection by getting Pilate s order to post a guard and seal the tomb (read Matthew 27:62-66). Some might say that the Romans or the Jews stole the body, but that makes no sense. What motive would they have had? That would only encourage something they wanted squelched. Instead, after Jesus had risen, and the guards had reported everything that had happened, the chief priests bribed them to circulate a false story that the disciples had stolen the body (read Matthew 28:11-15). The tomb was discovered empty because it WAS empty. Nobody got the tombs mixed up. Nobody stole the body. It was empty, period! F is for the Fatal Torment, E is for the Empty Tomb. What a FEAT God accomplished! - A is for the Appearances of Jesus after the resurrection One of the greatest proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was His many post-resurrection appearances. While there were many appearances, for the sake of time, I want to look at just one of these appearances. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:6 NIV: he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 2

3 3 More than 500 people, all who were still alive and able to give eye-witness testimony! There were surely many people that could testify to the trustworthiness of this statement. Several hundred. Paul s statement had plenty of eyewitness testimony to back it up or to disprove it if it had been false. F is for the Fatal Torment, E is for the Empty Tomb, and A is for the many Appearances after the resurrection. What a FEAT God accomplished! - T is for the Transformation of the Disciples The reality is that a transformation in Jesus followers took place. This is evidence of the reality of the resurrection. This little band of disciples went from hiding to public preaching in a very short time. They were willing to go through horrible torture and death. Lee Strobel writes, Nobody willingly dies for something that they know is false. (The Case for Easter, p.88) But they knew it to be true. They knew Jesus had died, they knew there was an empty tomb, and they had seen Him alive. The reality of the resurrection s transforming power didn t stop with the eyewitnesses. Within weeks of the resurrection, not just one, but an entire community of at least ten thousand Jews were willing to give up the very sociological and theological traditions that had given them their national identity. Why? Because they had come to believe in the resurrection and it changed their lives! Add to that fact this one: with the exception of the Apostle John who died an old man, every one of Jesus disciples died a martyr s death! You don t get so many people to give their lives for a lie. Some angry Jews in Thessalonica said of Paul and his comrades that These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here. (Acts 17:6 NIV). The original followers and the hearers of that first century were so radically transformed that they affected their culture big time. And the transformation of people has been continuing for 2000 years. F is for the Fatal Torment, E is for the Empty Tomb, A is for the many Appearances after the resurrection, and T is for the Transformation in the lives of Believers. What a FEAT God accomplished! Now it is time for the big question: So what? So what if the resurrection has been proven? So what if it is an indisputable fact? What is the relevance of the Resurrection? What difference does it make to believe in the resurrection? More pointedly, what difference does the resurrection make in your life? What does it matter that Jesus rose again to you? So what? How does that belief affect your behavior? You may ask, Why should Christ s resurrection be important to me? Remember, the beginning of this message when I stated that without the resurrection there would be no Christianity? Let s examine a few things that help us understand the importance of the resurrection for us. A. For Me the Resurrection proves Jesus is God Christ s resurrection proves He was God, and not an imposter. In John 2 Jesus chased out the moneychangers in the Temple because they d turned God s Temple into a marketing venture. The Jews asked Him, What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? This is what Jesus told them: Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. (John 2:19 NIV) They thought he was referring to the Temple building they were in. But verse 21 tells us He was referring to His body. He delivered on His miraculous sign, thus proving who He was. Paul opened the letter to the Romans like this: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 1:1-4 The Resurrection proves Jesus to be the Son of God and brings us face to face with the fact that He is who He claimed to be, God. The founder of every other religion died and stayed dead. Jesus rose again and is still alive. This is important to me and to you because it forces us to make a decision in our life. Since Christ is who He claimed to be, how will you respond to Him?

4 4 For Me the Resurrection proves Jesus is God. He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] Somebody say, Thank you Lord! B. For Me the Resurrection makes My salvation possible Without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ every one of us is still dead in their sins. Romans 4:25 NIV says, He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. If Jesus died and was never raised, then his death did nothing to accomplish justification. Justification means to be made right with God, to have good standing before Him. When God raising Jesus from the dead it showed acceptance of Christ s sacrifice. If God left Jesus in the grave, then the sacrifice was not accepted and no one has received cleansing from sin. The condemnation for sin is death (Romans 6:23). To still be under condemnation means that all people will be required to pay the ultimate penalty for their sins. Paul writes, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. (1 Cor. 15:14,17-18). If Christ did not rise then you are still dead in your sins and your Christian faith is worthless and anyone you ve known who died a believer is just as damned as any unbeliever. If there had been no resurrection, then Christ proved Himself nothing more than a self-deceived prophet or crazy man, and all of us are fools for trusting Him. BUT, as we ve already seen, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. Faith in Christ is not in vain. This is important to you and me this morning because Jesus being alive means the way to God has been paved by Christ and you can be made right with Him and have relationship with Him this morning. For Me the Resurrection proves Jesus is God and it makes my salvation possible. He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] Someone say, Praise the Lord! C. For Me the Resurrection means that I have eternal life. Jesus death on the cross made it possible that my sins are forgiven, but His resurrection made it possible that I have eternal life. Turn with me to Romans chapter 5. I want you to see this in your Bible. I want you to be absolutely certain what the resurrection means to the believer in Jesus. Using your own eyes look in your own Bible and read with me. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom. 5:8-10) There is a lot said in that passage, so let s take just a moment to digest it. We are justified, made right before God, by Jesus blood shed on the Cross. We are saved from the wrath of God to be poured out on all sin by Jesus death on the Cross. We are reconciled, put in right relationship with the Father by the death of His Son, But now look closely at what Paul said next: We shall be saved by His life. By HIS LIFE! This is not the only scripture in which Paul made that abundantly clear. In Col 3:4 states plainly that, Christ is our life. Listen to what is written in Heb. 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. There is so much that Jesus is doing for us right now as He sits at the right hand of God awaiting the order to return for us. I can t go into it all now, but maybe I will some day. But all that leads us to praise Him that we are saved not simply by His death but in and through His life! We owe our eternal life to the resurrection of Jesus Christ! As He was raised to new life, so are we. And that is graphically symbolized in our baptism. We are laid back into the baptismal waters to

5 5 symbolize the death of Jesus and our death in Him. We are raised out of those baptismal waters to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus and the fact that we are raised with Him. Once again I want you to see this with your own eyes in your own Bible. Turn to the next chapter in Romans to chapter 6 and find verse 4. Paul wrote, Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6:4) Has that happened to you? Have you been buried with your Lord in baptism and raised to walk in His life? Holy Spirit is calling you today to follow Jesus in baptism! Paul felt that everything hung on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is a complete expose on Paul s thinking. But notice just verse 17. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! See, the resurrection completes the work of the cross. They are interdependent on one another for the completion of our salvation. For me for you the resurrection means that eternal life is yours now and forever. For Me the Resurrection proves Jesus is God, it makes my salvation possible, and assure me of eternal life. He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] Will someone say Amen! before I bust? D. For Me the Resurrection makes My resurrection possible. See, this mortal body houses my soul and spirit, but it was not designed to live eternally. Our soul (our mind, will and emotions) as well as our spirit are eternal. They live on forever. But this shell that gives them expression is only designed to last for a few decades. But because of Jesus resurrection we are assured resurrected bodies. Once again look with your own eyes at your own Bible to 1 Cor. 15: But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 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. We are not as familiar with the term firstfruit. Let me share with you the Philip s translation. But the glorious fact is that Christ did rise from the dead: he has become the very first to rise of all who sleep the sleep of death. As death entered the world through a man, so has rising from the dead come to us through a man! As members of a sinful race all men die; as members of the Christ of God all men shall be raised to life. These resurrected bodies, our current bodies transformed, will be bodies completely perfect, eternal in nature and dominated by Holy Spirit rather than our sinful nature. Our resurrection is only made possible by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Stanley Horton points out, Christ s resurrection and ours are part of one and the same plan of God. (Horton, Stanley. I & II Corinthians. p. 150) Now, just look at yourself. Take a minute. Do you feel too fat? Too thin? Got hurting knees or allergies? Losing your hair? Whatever problems and imperfections you have are temporary and will one day be changed in the twinkling of an eye if you are in Christ. Our resurrected bodies will be perfect and fitted for eternal life. That is our hope. It is the completion for us of the ultimate extreme makeover. We will have a heavenly body for eternal living. He is risen! [He is risen indeed!] Let me close with this precious story. *** Little Philip, born with Down s syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in Leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought L eggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one,

6 6 the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That s stupid. That s not fair. Somebody didn t do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That s mine." "Philip, you don t ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There s nothing there!" I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It s empty. The tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class. He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg. (From Leadership Magazine)