Evidence Of The Resurrection

I recently was a part of a memorial service where a young child was being remembered. And I don’t think that there is anything more agonizing than the loss of a child. In fact when I think about loosing my little girls, it makes feel sick with grief. And my heart really went out to the Mother of that child. And my heart goes out to anyone else here that has ever experienced the loss of a child.

In Luke 19 it is recorded that the Lord needed a colt to ride on into Jeruselum. And told His disciples to go into that village and get a colt. The disciples found the colt and started to untie it and when the owner saw this and he said “Hey that’s mine”, and the disciples said “The Lord needs it.” And they took the colt from him.

And I think the realization that parents must come to, is that their little child was released to God’s care and keeping, and the knowledge that, in the Lords good purposes, God had need of that child. The Lord needs that child. What a beautiful truth and what a marvelous application.

But I don’t want to talk about death this morning. I want to talk about being alive!

And I didn’t tell you this story because I wanted to help you to understand death. No, I want to shed some light on what God wants. And what God requires from you today, is you. Why? Because “The Lord needs it.”

Pray:

Today is Resurrection Sunday, which I feel is more significant than Christmas. This is the day 1970 years ago that Jesus rose from the dead. And this morning the Lords message is about Christ, did he really rise from the dead? But before I do that I would like to give you some understanding, some insight into why Christ’s resurrection is so important.

You see since the day of Jesus’ birth many many people, called into question the deity of Jesus. Or in other words they doubted that Jesus was really the Son of God.

When Jesus got older He performed many miracles to attest to who He is. Yet there was still a lot of people that still did not believe He was the Son of God, in fact even some of the people that were miraculously healed by Him, did not believe that he was the Son of God.

These people believed that He was just a man, just a good teacher, perhaps even a prophet, but definately not the Son of God!

The Jewish leaders (Luke 22:66 - 23:1-3) were the ones that arrested Jesus for claiming to be the Son of God, and Jesus was turned over to the Romans by the Jewish leaders to be crucified.

After Jesus was delivered over to the Romans, Jesus was sentenced to die a criminals demise. And Jesus was crucified on the cross and then he laid down His life.

He was buried in a tomb. Earlier Jesus had promised that He would rise from the grave on the 3rd day. And it was essential to the Jewish leaders that Jesus did not rise from the grave, because if he did, then it would be undeniably true that Jesus is in fact God, because only God can come back from the dead after three days in the tomb and show himself to more than 500 people.

But perhaps, I may be speaking about something that you have yet to grasp, so forgive me and let me take just one more step back before going on to Jesus’ resurrection.

You see in the old testament which was written long before Jesus was born, there are many prophesies of the Messiah, and the Jewish people were waiting and they were expecting a King to come down from heaven on a chariot and reign as King over the world from a grand throne. But instead Jesus was born in a stable.

And became a suffering servant, instead of a triumphal General.

And when Jesus began teaching, Jesus made it very clear that He was the Son of God. And he had come to save the world from their sins. Sins? What do you mean Jesus will save me from my sins? I mean why does it matter whether I sin? What is a Sin? A sin is anything that is against God.

Well let me explain what would happen before Jesus came to save the earth from its sins, You see in the Old Testament, there were always lambs being killed in the tabernacle and in other places. Why did they do that? Why would they kill innocent lambs and spill their blood and not eat them? Why? Because that is what God demanded as payment for their sins. God demanded blood, death of an innocent.