Jesus Christ Is Alive: Do You Believe This?

Jesus Christ is Alive:

Do You Believe this?

Luke 24:1-12

20 April 2025

Today we will be talking about the event that has changed the course of the world, the most significant day in human history…the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith stands or falls on Christ’s resurrection, in fact, the apostle Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is groundless, your preaching is useless, and you are still in your sins.”

The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and the basis for our salvation and transformation because Christ took the penalty for all our sins on His own body, died in our place and then conquered death. Nothing could defeat Him. Since Christ has risen from the dead, Christianity is true, and His life and teachings are vindicated. Jesus' resurrection guarantees our resurrection.

Paul said in 1 Cor 15:42-44:

It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. 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.

This promise of resurrection, of eternal life is for everyone who has trusted in Jesus and has accepted His forgiveness for their sin.

The hope of the resurrection was not something new to the New Testament saints. Job, in Old Testament times, said, “And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!” (19:26).

Daniel spoke about the bodily resurrection (12:3) as did Isaiah (26:19) and Jeremiah (30:9). They all believed in the resurrection of the body and after that judgment. At the end of time God will physically raise the dead - some will awake to eternal life and others to everlasting shame and sorrow. Only Jesus has the power to deliver us from the latter. Jesus said:

I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies,and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)

And then He promised His disciples:

After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live (John 14:19).

We find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that they all recorded the account of Christ’s crucifixion, death, His burial in the tomb, the empty tomb, the encounter with angels, eyewitnesses to the resurrection and ascension, and transformed lives. Yet even with all this evidence people still struggle to wrap their heads around the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Anthony Flew, a famous atheist philosopher became a Deist after debating Gary Habermas around the facts of the resurrection. Flew stated:

The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.

Flew could not refute the fact that Jesus lived, died, was buried, and that there was an empty tomb and that His body was never found. However, he couldn’t bring himself to believe in Christ’s resurrection despite the multitude of eyewitness accounts and the inception of the Christian faith. He couldn’t bring himself to believe in the resurrection because according to his worldview lens miracles are impossible. Because Jesus' resurrection was miraculous, it was, therefore, impossible. Catch 22.

Even those who walked with Jesus for three years, who listened to His teaching, witnessed His miracles, His crucifixion, and His death came to the natural, logical conclusion that this was the end. No one believed He would come back from the dead. Mike Lecona, a New Testament scholar, summed it up this way:

A dying and rising Messiah was so foreign to their thoughts and hopes that they simply did not hear Jesus, thought he may be mistaken or were in a state of denial while hoping that events would not turn out as he was predicting.

When Jesus died, His disciples were in a state of despair and hopelessness. And this brings us to our passage today. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Luke 24:1-12.

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in gleaming clothing; 5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead.” 8 And they remembered His words, 9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 Now these women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. 11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. 12 Nevertheless, Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and when he stooped and looked in, he *saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.