Jesus Is Literally Alive Right Now

The disciples were terrified. They hid together in their dwelling in Jerusalem, trembling with fear. They didn’t know if roman soldiers or temple guards might burst through the doors at any moment and arrest them all. They might all die, just like Jesus died, scourged with whips, and nailed to wooden blanks. They didn’t know what would happen.

But something was strange about how Jesus died. There were a series of strange reports. There was an earthquake while Jesus was on the cross, and before the earthquake there had been 3 hours of darkness, from noon until 3. The two women who went to the tomb said they saw Jesus there, and he was alive. But most of them didn’t believe it. Rumors spread that the cloth barrier that separated the holy of holies in the temple had been torn in two from top to bottom, the massive quilt barrier that separated the people from God in the temple, at the very moment Jesus died.

What was happening? What was going on? Would you turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 24, and we’re looking at verses 36-48. And we see Jesus has been crucified, and his followers are in hiding.

Two of the disciples had just arrived. And they tell the story of how they walked on the Emmaus road and were talking to a fellow traveler on the road. They talked for some time, and then they realized that the man walking with them was Jesus! And then he suddenly vanished. What a strange story!

Then Jesus suddenly appears right in front of all of them. And he says “I’m alive! It’s me!” The disciples are terrified and they think they’re seeing a ghost. He shows them his hands and feet. He tells them that he is no ghost, he is real. He shows them his hands and feet, the holes where he was pierced in his flesh. Those wounds would never fully heal, never. Think about that, what God himself was willing to do for you and me.

Jesus did something eternal for us. Today he bears those same marks. He still has the hole in his side where the spear was driven into his abdomen. And Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive right now!

And He is hard at work. He is hard at work in many beautiful ways. He’s active in the world through his body, the church, which is you. He’s active in heaven, the reality beyond this world, where God lives.

He is actively interceding for us, that is, talking to God on our behalf, and asking for God the Father to have mercy on us who are in the world. Jesus is also active preparing our dwellings in the eternal city of God, which will come down out of heaven when God remakes the world.

Why then are we so often like the disciples? Why are we so afraid? We often fear and misunderstand what God is doing in our lives. Just like the disciples didn’t understand that Jesus intentionally went to the cross for the purpose of being a sacrifice for our sins.

It’s scary when things go wild in our lives. We often don’t understand what’s happening. Especially when something terrible happens. But often it’s a blessing in disguise, even if simply for the fact that it’s molding us into the image of Christ.

The disciples must’ve thought it was over, Jesus had died. And that was it. But it doesn’t end there. It’s the same in our lives. We think it’s over, but it isn’t over.

Yet we so often doubt God. Why do we doubt? Why did the disciples doubt Jesus? I mean they could see him and touch his hands and feet. He was right there in the room, yet they were still doubting.

We often have the same problem today. We’ve seen how Jesus has transformed our lives. We’ve seen how Jesus has changed the lives of our loved ones. We’ve seen it all. Yet we still doubt.

I suppose it’s natural to doubt the supernatural. We don’t naturally see things like resurrection, or miracles. But it’s really not that difficult when you think about it. I mean, think about it, God made the world from nothing. Everything we see. How hard is it then for Him to resurrect Jesus from the dead?

In any case, it’s wise to consider all the facts in a situation. So I’d like to share with you three quotations from prominent thinkers about the resurrection of Christ:

First we have a quotation from Timothy Paul Jones: “The central claim of the NT is that Jesus was physically resurrected after being crucified. If this claim arose from decades of embellishment instead of historical truth, then Jesus is dead, the apostles were liars, and our faith is worthless (1 Cor. 15:14–17). But evidences from the first and second centuries reveal that eyewitness testimony about Jesus emerged rapidly and circulated reliably. The NT texts relied on testimonies from apostolic eyewitnesses, and all of these texts were completed while the eyewitnesses were still alive. That’s why we can declare with confidence: Don’t worry; I read the book. He didn’t stay dead.”