"He Showed Himself Alive …” 2 Of 2

That statement was the truth when I said it and it is the truth now!

I vehemently want to state again, it is not one of the most important, but THE MOST IMPORTANT topic of the Bible.

As we focus in on this most important topic again today, with all the Easter traditions we have in this country it is not always easy to find the truth.

Illus: Ben Haden tells the story of a group of four-year-olds that were gathered in a Sunday school class in Chattanooga. The teacher looked at the class and asked this question: “Does anyone know what today is?”

A little four-year-old girl held up her hand and said, “Yes, today is Palm Sunday.”

The teacher exclaimed, "That's fantastic, that's wonderful. Now does anyone know what next Sunday is?"

The same little girl held up her hand and said, "Yes, next Sunday is Easter Sunday."

Once again the teacher said, "That's fantastic. Now, does anyone know what makes next Sunday Easter?"

The same little girl responded and said, "Yes, next Sunday is Easter because Jesus rose from the grave" and before the teacher could congratulate her, she kept on talking and said, "but if He sees His shadow -- He has to go back in for seven weeks."

We need to make sure that the teachings we embrace about the resurrection are teachings that can be found in the Holy Scriptures.

The RESURRECTION is the greatest victory that has ever occurred on this earth.

WHY DO WE SAY THAT?

Because death is the greatest enemy of mankind.

When the Lord rose from the grave, He achieved the greatest victory that has ever occurred on this earth.

Other men, even the greatest men, have died.

• Buddha

• Mohammed

• Zoroaster

• Confucius

• Caesar

• Marx

Men who made a profound impact on the world in one way or another, are all dead. But Jesus Christ is alive!

It is true, He had death in common with all men. He died and was buried, but unlike other men He resurrected His own dead body, made it immortal, and emerged from the tomb, alive forevermore!

This was the greatest of all miracles since the creation itself, and could have been accomplished only if Jesus indeed is God, as He had claimed to be. In 1 Cor. 15:20-22, we read, “But now is Christ risen from the dead…even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

In the previous message, we looked at THE FACTS OF THE RESURRECTION.

Now let’s -

II. CONSIDER THE FRUITION OF THE RESURRECTION

That is, the resurrection of Christ not only produce things when it occurred, but it is still producing things today.

When Russia ceased to be a super power, as a nation we all felt relief.

Why? Because we considered Russia to be our greatest threat and when this super power fell, we no longer felt threatened.

Death is the greatest enemy we have. But the Lord defeated death for all of us when He was resurrected. He said these encouraging words, in John 14:19, “…because I live, ye shall live also.”

In other words, the Lord is saying to all mankind, “Your greatest enemy is death, and I have defeated death for you.”

The resurrection produced some things then that are still being produced today.

What does it produce?

A. THE RESURRECTION PRODUCES INSTANT JOY

When Christ was crucified all seemed lost.

There have been some sad days in Christianity, but none ever sadder than the day they crucified the Son of God.

• Men and women had forsaken their religions, jobs, and families to follow Him.

• They had seen Him perform great miracles everywhere He went, and they heard Him speak as no other man has ever spoken.

• They had seen Him nailed to a cross.

• They had seen the crowd mock Him as He hung on that cross.

• They had hoped, as long as their was breath in His body, that He would come down off that cross. I can see some in that crowd, almost anticipating that at any time He might do that.

Then, when He raised His head, took that one last deep breathe and said, "It is finished," they thought He meant that His enemies had won.

But these were not words of DEFEAT but words of TRIUMPH!

The people did not know that He was telling the world that He had come and fulfilled all prophecy and had paid the price for sin for every lost person so they could be saved.

We can do nothing to earn our salvation.

Jesus came, He was the sinless, sacrificial "Lamb" that John had declared to be LAMB OF GOD THAT WOULD TAKE AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.

He was telling the world that the job He had come to do was FINISHED!