Resurrection
Introduction
The most fantastic
claim Christians make is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But Christians have a
second problem with the Resurrection: not only whether it happened, but whether it matters if
it happened two thousand years ago.
People ask how an event of
such remote antiquity can possibly have any significance for us today. Why on earth do Christians
make such a song and dance about the Resurrection? Isn't it irrelevant?
Does it
really matter?
Today we’ll see the relevance of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The disciples knew not
only that it had taken place, but that it was an event of enormous
significance. So central was the
Resurrection to their message—that Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, describes
Peter and John as
"preaching Jesus and the Resurrection."
And it was the same with
Paul when he was speaking with the philosophers in Athens. They were extremely
rude to him. The reason for their
ridicule was that he preached to them about Jesus and the Resurrection.
And when the time came for
Paul
(1 Cor.15:3-4) to summarize his message, he wrote, "I passed on to you as
the first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, that
he was buried, that on the third day he rose again..." 3
So, the resurrection of Jesus
is at the very center, at the very heart and core of the Christian Good News.
We
should first define “the Resurrection”
Before I go on any
further, I think it's important for us to be quite clear on what we're talking
about.
We're not
talking about Jesus' surviving legacy, as a result of which we can say, "Well, he's alive," or,
"He is living." When Ninoy Aquino, Cory died some years
ago, his followers, LIVE their legacy ! He/she hasn't risen from
the dead, but his influence was still living. Abraham Lincoln, John F.
Kennedy, George Washington or Bush’ legacy lives on to some Americans. But the Resurrection is not just the survival
of Jesus legacy.
The Resurrection was a transformation from death to
immortality God performed a dramatic act by which he arrested the
process of decay, decomposition, and corruption; God rescued Jesus out of the realm of death; and
transformed his body into a new vehicle for his personality, so that he had a
new power and was now immortal, never to die again.
Now that we're clear on what we're talking about, I
come back to my question: Does it matter? Does it make
any difference whether it is true that Jesus of Nazareth actually rose from the
dead?
Let me suggest to you at
least three reasons why it is of immense importance.
The first is
this:
1.The
Resurrection assures us of God’s forgiveness
Forgiveness
is one of God's best gifts. A certain psychiatrist
said, "I could dismiss half my
patients tomorrow if they could be assured of their forgiveness." The great American wit, Mark
Twain, once said, "Man is the only animal that blushes, and the only
animal that needs to."
The truth is that all of
us have some skeleton a dark closet at home — something we've done or said or
thought, of which, in our best moments, we are deeply and sadly ashamed. Our conscience nags us, torments us, condemns
us.
We are
ashamed, are we not, of things we've done in the past. Nobody is free who is
unforgiven.
Instead of being able to
look God in the face or to look one another in the face, we want to run away and
hide when our conscience troubles us. But the Christian good news begins with the
assurance there is forgiveness with God.
Several times during his public ministry,
Jesus said to somebody, "Your sins are forgiven." And in the upper room on
his last night on earth, he referred to the
Communion cup as his "blood which was shed for many for the forgiveness of
sins." He taught that he was
going to die, burying our sin and guilt and condemnation in his own innocent
person in order that we might be forgiven.
If he had remained dead,
I'm afraid we would have been convinced that his death was a failure and that
he did not secure by it what he said he was going to secure. The resurrection of Christ was necessary to prove that
Jesus Christ had accomplished what He had promised.
The death of our Lord alone would not have sufficed,
since it is by our identification with Him in His death, burial, and
resurrection that we are saved. But Paul is very clear
about this. That Jesus rose from the dead and the forgiveness of our sins.
He says it
twice: “If Christ has not been raised.” (I Corinthians 15:14-19) v.14 Our
preaching is useless, V.14,17 Our faith is useless, V.17We are
still guilty of our sins
If
Christ was still dead and in the grave, then confidence in Him for salvation is
futile. Ex. Rizalista. This
means the believer is still dead in his or her sins. He
or she is without any hope of forgiveness or eternal life. Christians
who had already died would be lost forever, eternally separated from God.
We
have no forgiveness of our sins in the past, and
we have no advantage over unbelievers in the present. Believers
have no future, specifically resurrected bodies like Christ's, If
we have nothing to hope for the other side of the grave, the Christian life
would not be worth living.
On the contrary, Christ’s death is the ground on which God is
able to forgive all our sins,
and the resurrection proves his death was not in vain. The greatest problem we face is not accepting the resurrection of Christ, and that fact that “He lives” today. The greatest problem we face as sinners is recognition of the fact that we are dead in our transgressions and sins, and are eternally lost apart from His death, burial, and resurrection. It is our condition of being helplessly dead in our sins which makes the resurrection of Christ such a vitally needed truth
and the resurrection proves his death was not in vain. The greatest problem we face is not accepting the resurrection of Christ, and that fact that “He lives” today. The greatest problem we face as sinners is recognition of the fact that we are dead in our transgressions and sins, and are eternally lost apart from His death, burial, and resurrection. It is our condition of being helplessly dead in our sins which makes the resurrection of Christ such a vitally needed truth
Have you received
forgiveness?
That's the first thing.
The resurrection of Jesus assures us of God's forgiveness today.
Second relevance &
importance of resurrection:
2.
The Resurrection assures us of God’s power
I don't know about you,
my friends, but I need more than forgiveness for the past. I need power in the
present.
Is God really able to change human nature?
Is it
possible for selfish people to be made unselfish? Is it possible for immoral people to be given self-control?
Is it possible for cruel people to be made kind, and sour people to be sweetened?
Wouldn't it be marvelous if that were possible? I want to tell you today on this Resurrection Day that it is possible. God has power to change human nature and to change human beings. He has power to transform you and me into the image of Jesus Christ, to make us like Christ.
That same resurrection
power, which God displayed in Jesus Christ when he raised him from the dead, is available to us today. He can raise us from the death of sin to the
life of righteousness. He can raise us from the
death of alienation into a life of close, personal communion and fellowship
with God.
Ex. Apostle Paul –
persecutor to a saint, Acts 8:1 Giving approval
to Stephen’s death gal.1:13 Persecuted the church & tried to destroy it
1 Cor.15: 9 For I am the
least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m
not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s
church. 10 But whatever
I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not
without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by
his grace.
1
Cor.15:30 If there is no resurrection, why did Paul
endure so many hardships and dangers in his ministry? to show that he
believed there would be one. He
willingly faced death daily because he believed God would raise him and that
his resurrected body would continue beyond the grave.
32 … And if
there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!” 34 Think
carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know
God at all.
1
Cor.15:34 The Corinthians needed to think correctly. Rather
than living for the present, as their pagan neighbors were undoubtedly
encouraging them to do, they
needed to stop sinning and fulfill their present purpose, namely, propagating
the gospel.
Christians
generally and the apostle in particular believed in the Resurrection deeply. It
affected the way they lived, as it should.
The same God of supernatural power who
raised Jesus from physical death can raise us from spiritual death and make us
alive and alert to spiritual things. We can know that God can raise us
from that death because he raised Christ. He can change us, because he changed
Christ.
It means there is the
possibility of a new beginning. No matter where you
traveled in the past, there is an opportunity to start over. Like the woman caught in adultery (John 8)
there is a way to start again.
You are NOT
too far gone. A new start is possible. We can change, others can be changed by
God….
3.
The Resurrection assures us of God’s ultimate triumph
And now, third, it assures us of God's
ultimate triumph at the end of history.
One of the
great differences between the different religions of the world and the
different ideologists of the world, as well, concerns their version of the
future. Is there any
future? Is there any
hope in the future?
There are some people
who offer no hope at all. They lapse into existential pessimism and deep
despair.
Great and brilliant man Bertrand Russell:
He once said,
"When I die, I believe that I shall rot, and that that is the end."
Then he went on, "All the labors of the ages—the inspiration, the noonday
brightness of human genius—are destined to extinction. The whole
temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried in the debris of a
universe in ruins."
In other words, there
is nothing in the future to look forward to.
Woody Allen (The filmmaker)…is
terrified of death, once wrote or said:
"The
fundamental thing behind all motivation and all activity is the constant
struggle against annihilation and against death. Death is absolutely stupefying
in its terror, and it renders anyone's accomplishment meaningless"?
So there are many people who have no hope for
the future.
Others think
of history not in a line that's going to end in a climax, but in a circle, so
that everything is going to be repeated continuously in an endless cycle of
reincarnations (in which adherents of the New Age Movement are so interested),
and there is no escape except extinction.
I want to tell you that Christians, on the
other hand, are confident that Jesus Christ is going to come back at the end of
history, not in humility , as in his first coming, but in stupendous power and
utter and sheer magnificence.
The second
coming of Jesus Christ is altogether beyond our wildest dreams and imagination
when he comes in power and glory. And when he comes, he will bring history to
an end. He will raise
the dead, and he will regenerate the universe, and he will make everything new.
You know the name Joni
Eareckson, don't you? She was that athletic teenager who broke her neck in a diving
accident in Chesapeake Bay. She has written: "I have hope in the
future. The Bible speaks about bodies being glorified." (By the way, she's a quadriplegic.) And then
she says, "I know the meaning of that now. It's the time after my death here when I, the
quadriplegic, will be on my
feet dancing."
We're going to have a new
body with undreamed-of powers. But you say to me,
"Isn't that wishful thinking? Isn't that Christians’ just whistling in the
dark in order to keep their spirits up? Is there
any evidence for this fantastic assertion that the universe is going to be
reborn and resurrected along with us?"
Yes, There is evidence. The evidence is the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the guarantee of the resurrection of our
bodies and the regeneration of the universe, because, the resurrection of Jesus
was the beginning of the new creation of God. His
resurrection is the pledge that the rest of the material of creation is going
to be transfigured one day.
The
Resurrection Body
35 But someone
may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”
42 …Our earthly
bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live
forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.
44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
Conclusion
So, I conclude, the
resurrection of Jesus has relevance for you and me. It assures us of God's forgiveness through
Jesus Christ, if we put our trust in him. It assures us of his
resurrection power that we can call upon in our lives. And it assures us of God's
ultimate triumph in the end, when we shall have new bodies in a new world.
Bruce
Goettsche
Do you understand what
this all means? First, it means there is hope. What is it
that gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave? What is
the ultimate hope of the cripple, the amputee, the abused, the burn victim? How can
the parents of brain-damaged or physically handicapped children keep from
living their entire lives totally and completely depressed? Why would
anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be encouraged when they think of the
life beyond?
What is
the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases,
sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?
One thing:
the hope of bodily resurrection. The bodily
resurrection means there is a life beyond this one . . . a place where things
will make sense, where God
will rule, where evil will be vanquished. It means there is the possibility of a new beginning
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be
strong and immovable. Always
work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the
Lord is ever useless.
Paul's
readers should not move away from it but should remain immovable in it. They
should also increase their efforts to serve the Lord even as Paul had done (v.
10). Rather
than living for the present (v. 32) believers should live in the
present with the future clearly in view.
No
one except Jesus Christ has come back from the dead to tell us what is on the
other side. However,
His testimony through His apostles is sufficient to give us confidence that there
is life and bodily resurrection after death.
-----------------------------------------
Adapted
from: John
Stott
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