Believing In The Resurrection Of Christ

INTRO.- ILL.- Lee Strobel was an atheist who turned to Christ. He was the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times best-selling author of nearly twenty books and has been interviewed on numerous national television programs, including ABC’s 20/20, Fox News, and CNN. Listen to what Strobel wrote about Christ:

Who would you guess is the most successful defense attorney in the world? F. Lee Bailey? Let’s check an authoritative source on this: the Guinness Book of World Records. This is what it says on Page 547: "Most successful lawyer: Sir Lionel Luckhoo . . . (who) succeeded in getting his 245th successive murder charge acquittal by January 1, 1985."

That’s an absolutely astonishing feat that nobody in the world has come close to replicating -- 245 murder trials in a row, either won before a jury or on appeal. No wonder he’s renowned as the real-life Perry Mason.

What skills do you think he needed to rise to that unprecedented level of courtroom success? Certainly he must be smart and savvy. He must have tremendous analytical skills so he can dissect what may appear on the surface to be an air-tight case. And he must be a world-class expert on what constitutes reliable and persuasive evidence.

All of that describes Luckhoo, who was knighted twice by Queen Elizabeth and who also served as a distinguished diplomat and a justice on his country’s highest court.

As we approach Easter, wouldn’t it be interesting to get an opinion from an expert like Luckhoo on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, we’re in luck, so to speak.

During his own spiritual journey, Luckhoo turned his expertise to the question of whether the resurrection of Jesus Christ fits the test of legal evidence. And here’s the conclusion he ultimately reached: "I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt."

Amazing, isn’t it? Our everyday experience tells us that pigs don’t talk, regardless of the movie Babe; that Santa Claus doesn’t slide down chimneys; and that dead people don’t spring back to life.

And yet here’s the most successful attorney in the world applying the test of legal evidence to the case of Jesus Christ and concluding with absolute confidence that His resurrection is reality. And then Luckhoo did the most logical thing he could do: he gave his life to Christ.

We are here today to remember and reinforce our faith in the living Christ! He is our only hope for this life and the next!

PROP.- From our text on the resurrection of Christ, there are three important points that we need to take with us. We need to believe them and live them.

1- Fear not

2- Come see

3- Go tell

I. FEAR NOT

4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

One thing we should not fear in life is the fact of the risen Savior. We do believe in and serve a RISEN SAVIOR! He is not dead.

ILL.- One dark night two guys were walking home after a party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. When they got to about the middle of the graveyard they were startled and stopped moving.

There was this terrifying noise, “TAP-TAP-TAP” coming from the shadows. Trembling with fear, they spotted an old man with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones.

"Holy cow Mister,” one of them said after catching his breath. “You SCARED us half to death. We thought you were a GHOST! What are you doing working here so late at night?"

"Those fools!" the old man grumbled. "They misspelled my name!!"

Brothers and sisters, what do you fear most in life? Death? Or perhaps you fear the thought that there is nothing beyond death? Or that the resurrection was just a hoax?

ILL.- And here’s an interesting news item about Pepsi and the afterlife. It is said that a number of misconceptions can come when trying to translate a concept from one language to another. The Pepsi Cola company found this out when mounting an ad campaign in Taiwan. The slogan was supposed to read "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation." Unfortunately, translated into Chinese it read, "Pepsi Will Bring Your Ancestors Back From the Dead."

Needless to say the advertisements were canceled - even Pepsi couldn’t quite live up to that claim. The resurrection from the dead is possible but only through the Lord Jesus Christ!