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!
I Thess. 4:13-14 “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”
FEAR NOT! Because He lives, we too shall live!
II. COME SEE
6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
There is plenty of evidence of the power of God. Open your eyes.
ILL.- Rodney Buchanan is a preacher friend of mine. Listen to what he wrote about the resurrection of Christ. "I used to read books that gave 124 reasons for believing in the resurrection. I liked the books giving evidence that demanded a verdict, as though, if we just had enough proof, we could convince the world that God exists and they would believe. I don’t think that happens much. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the Christian faith is reasonable and rational. We are not talking about flying blue elephants and fairies. The Christian faith has plenty of historical and rational evidence to back it up, and that is important to me. Faith is not just accepting every wild notion that comes down the road. In fact, the more I see how interrelated the Bible is and how much it is tied to the real world, the more convinced I am about the reliability of Scripture and the validity of the faith.
"But I don’t have to have proof for everything, nor do I have to understand everything before I accept it. I don’t understand my television, but I still turn it on and watch it. I believe in it. I don’t even understand my PDA, but I use it every day. I don’t understand God, but I believe in him, trust him and love him. I’m glad I don’t have him all figured out, because that means that there is so much more of him that I still have to know. To think that I could understand the eternal God who fills the universe is the height of arrogance."
ILL.- Hank Hanegraff who heads up CRI (Christian Research Inst.) wrote this: “The Resurrection is not merely important to the historic Christian faith — without it there would be no Christianity. It elevates Christianity above all other world religions.
"Through the Resurrection Christ demonstrated that He does not stand in a line of peers with Abraham, Buddha, Confucius, or Muhammad. Jesus Christ is utterly unique. He had the power not only to lay down His life, but also to take it up again.”
Believe it, CHRIST IS RISEN! COME SEE!
III. GO TELL
7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ’He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you." 8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Go tell the disciples that He has risen from the dead. As far as the disciples knew, Jesus was dead. They needed to be told that He had risen from the dead.
We need to do the same thing with ALL people today! People who believe in Jesus and people who don’t believe in Jesus need to be told the message, again and again.
Matthew 28:18-20 "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
ILL.- Robert Speer said, “Any man who has a religion is bound to do one of two things with it: change it or spread it. If it isn’t true, he must give it up. If it is true, he must give it away.”
ILL.- John Morely, the Englishman, who was not a Christian wrote, “If I believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and my Savior, I would never write or talk anything else.”
I Pet. 3:15 “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
ILL.- A preacher friend wrote me recently: "Last night I experienced the worst night of my preaching career. We had a visitor to our assembly the first Sunday this month and he stayed for our potluck and wanted to talk to me. He said, ’I’d like to be baptized before I die.’ I told him that was a great idea but that I wanted him to know what he was doing. I gave him a pamphlet and asked him to look at these verses with his own Bible and when he came back, I would love to baptize him. He spent a lot of time talking about his late wife, his health concerns...which at the time didn’t seem all that serious...and he just struck me as a very lonely guy. I talked to him for about 30 minutes and then went back to the potluck because we were having our evening assembly in the afternoon that day.
"Last night my wife came into the living room and asked, ’What was the name of that guy who visited the other day?’ When I told her she said, ’I thought so...his obituary is in today’s paper.’ I felt like somebody had sucked the air out of the room. Well, anyway, I’m still praying that God will forgive me. It’s one thing to go out and beat the sticks trying to find someone who wants to be baptized and God brought me a guy who said, ’I want to be baptized before I die...’ And I gave him a pamphlet and sent him home."
Brothers and sisters, how many people have come to you, searching for salvation, wanting to know about Christ and how to be saved, and you sent them away? Or just as bad, maybe you didn’t even show enough compassion to even try to witness to them about Christ?
ILL.- I have another friend who opened the door in a nursing home, searching for a particular resident and the man inside said, "I’m going to hell! Can somebody tell me how to be saved?"
My friend was shocked but he took the time to answer that man’s question. What about us? Do we pass by people who are headed to a Christ-less grave without speaking the message of salvation to them?
CONCLUSION-----------------------
Easter isn’t just about Easter egg hunts, parties, and family gatherings. Easter is about the hope that we have in the resurrection of Christ! Easter is about the promise of life beyond this life because HE LIVES! And we have no right to be selfish or stingy with this gospel!
We need to get with God’s program of telling the lost of this world about the hope that is in Jesus Christ! Make that your Easter commitment!
