-A couple of weeks ago I heard about a Hawaiian man who had been reporting missing was presumed dead.
-He had ventured into some caves and hadn’t made it out.
-A missing person report was filed with police but after 3 ½ days no one had seen him and they assumed the worst.
-His family and friends thought he was dead!
-His aunt goes to our church and had written his name down on the prayer card…I wasn’t praying for him; he was dead!
-I was praying for his grieving family!
-But that whole time he was actually lost in a network of caves and all he had on him was small flashlight.
-And amazingly the batteries in his little flashlight held out.
-And after 3days he came out of those caves alive!
-We all know what it’s like to lose someone.
-We’ve all gotten the news that someone passed away and we have all kind of reactions.
-But rarely do we have hope that they’re coming back.
-I’ve met guys who died on the operating table brag about it, because they know it’s a big deal!
-“I died on the table and they brought me back.”
-I’m like, “That’s great…try and eat more vegetables!”
-Anyone who cheats death is a hero! But it’s kind of temporary.
-All people die, and when they die there is no coming back.
-When someone dies the realization that they’re gone sinks in.
-That’s why the resurrection of Jesus is such a powerful story.
-Dead people don’t come back; but Jesus did!
-We’re on week 4 of a 10 week series called “Gospel Deep” and today we are talking about the resurrection.
-Easter is the day churches tell the resurrection story and we’re going to have 4 services this Easter…stay tuned for info on that.
-But today we’re going to talk about what the resurrection means.
-But before we get into our text hold up that right hand!
• Jesus came to save.
• Jesus never sinned.
• Jesus died on the cross.
• Jesus rose from the grave.
• Jesus is coming back.
-If you know these 5 points you have a basic outline to help you share the Gospel.
-What is our response to the Good News? Raise that left hand up!
• Admit my sin.
• Trust in Jesus.
• Turn away from sin.
• Be baptized.
• Follow Jesus.
-This the basic gospel message and this is how we respond to the gospel. If you know this you can share this with people who don’t know Jesus.
-Now let’s talk about the only man who never sinned, who died on a cross for other people’s sins, AND…the only man who ever raised himself from the dead!
1 Corinthians 15:3 “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.
4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.”
-Notice that Paul says Jesus was raised from the dead just as the Scriptures predicted. (Ps 16:10)
-For thousands of years people had been waiting for the coming of the Savior.
-The Bible not only predicted the coming of Jesus and the death of Jesus and the burial of Jesus…but also his resurrection!
-Please notice that the apostle Paul calls these basic Gospel truths “most important.”
-The death, burial & resurrection of Jesus are foundational beliefs in the Christian faith.
-That’s why critics have a bullseye on the resurrection of Christ.
-They understand something that many Christians don’t.
-That without the resurrection Jesus was just some guy who made some claims, made a stir, and then died like everyone else.
-Without the resurrection he was not God’s Son, he has no power, he cannot save, and he might as well be forgotten.
-You need to know, that there are people who vehemently oppose the resurrection of Christ.
JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE…OUR CRITICS HATE THAT! (1 Cor 15:3-4)
-There are all kinds of theories people have proposed to explain away the resurrection. I’ll give you four common theories.
-Swoon theory…is one that many people have passed along.
-The idea is that Jesus recovered from all his wounds.
-The magazine Christianity Today used to have a letter to the editor section called “Eutychus and his Kin” One letter said this:
Dear Eutychus: ( the editor)
Our preacher said, on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think?
Sincerely, Bewildered
Dear Bewildered:
Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails 39 times, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear through his side; embalm him; put him in a tomb for 72 hours and see what happens.
Sincerely, Eutychus
-The idea that Jesus was crucified and spent 3 days in a cave with no medical attention and then somehow bounced back is absurd.
-Stolen body theory: The idea that the disciples came and stole
the body and tried to fool everyone.
-In fact, according to Matthew 27, the Pharisees tried to bribe the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb to say exactly that.
-They knew that if the word got out about Christ’s resurrection, they were done for!
-So they did everything they could to make that story go away; & they failed miserably because here we are still talking about it.
-Mass Hallucination: The idea is that they were sincere in their belief but they basically all went crazy together.
-Sounds possible I suppose…if it he had appeared one time to a couple of unstable individuals.
-But the appearance of the risen Christ wasn’t a singular event.
-After he was raised from the dead Jesus appeared to numerous people on numerous occasions.
-My personal favorite is…
-Impostor theory: somebody dressed up like Jesus and fooled
everyone. Sounds like a plot to some crazy movie:
-Jesus had an evil twin brother who fooled the whole world.
-They propose preposterous theories to explain away the resurrection…which reveals something critically important about them: THEY KNOW SOMETHING HAPPENED.
-Something world changing happened that day and they know it.
-And they are so uncomfortable with the implications of the resurrection that they’ll say anything to make it go away.
-It’s easy for people just to say, “Well…the disciples were all in on it! They spread a false report!”
-But think that through. How do we know that anything we read about from history actually happened?
-We could take that same skeptical attitude about any historical event and simply dismiss it by saying, “False report.”
-And people do! Some people still think the earth is flat and there was a conspiracy to convince us it was round. “Flat earth societ”
-There are people who believe that astronauts never landed on the moon. They are out there!
-People who think the 911 attacks and the holocaust were hoaxes. -And how did these people reach that conclusion?
-The psychiatric diagnosis is: Too much time on the internet.
-They have no reason to doubt those credible reports.
-But they dismiss credible, eye witness accounts to avoid accepting the conclusion they don’t want to accept.
-How would you prove to someone that Abe Lincoln really lived?
-How do you prove that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue?
-The same way we prove that Jesus was raised from the dead.
-We read and consider the eye-witness accounts from people who were actually there.
JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE…AND WE HAVE EVIDENCE!
-We can’t prove the resurrection beyond the shadow of all doubt. -But we can provide evidence that it happened.
-Empty tomb (Matt 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, John 20:1)
-Each of the four gospels records women discovering the empty tomb early on a Sunday morning.
-There were people who arrived to a dead man’s tomb and discovered it empty. And they were all women. Important!
-In the days when this happened no one would consider a woman to be a credible witness. That’s good for our case!
-If the apostles were part of a plot to convince people of the resurrection they would have never picked women to fabricate the report. They would have picked men.
-But they didn’t fabricate it; they told it as it really happened.
-Eyewitnesses of the Risen Lord (1 Cor 15:5-8)
1 Cor 15:5-8 “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.
-If you read the resurrection accounts from the gospels you’ll find that this wasn’t just the one time.
-He appeared to them in the upper room.
-He appeared to them along the sea of Galilee.
6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
-There was a gathering of disciples numbering more than 500 people and Jesus appeared to all of them together.
7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”
-James is one of Christ’s brothers who was not a supporter of Jesus during his ministry.
-He had a visit from the risen Lord and he believed.
-The apostle Paul said he’d seen him and that account is recorded in the book of Acts.
-Before Paul saw Jesus he was one of the men trying to stomp out the message of the resurrection!
-Until he saw the resurrected Jesus himself…and it changed him so deeply that died spreading the Good News about Jesus.
-Numerous eyewitnesses gave testimony to Christ’s resurrection.
-And there is no good reason for us to doubt it.
-Explosive growth of Christianity:
Jesus appeared to many people for 40 days then ascended to heaven. From the time of his ascension to the day of Pentecost was 10 days.
-So 50 days after he was raised the church in Jerusalem had 3000 members and started rapidly gaining ground.
-People believed the eyewitnesses as they shared about Jesus.
-Very early on people were being jailed and even killed for their faith in Jesus.
-It was risky to identify yourself as a Christian.
-And yet the church was booming! Acts 2:47 says that people were being added to the church each day.
-Why would people put themselves in harms way if they didn’t truly believe what had happened?
-And that’s another evidence for the claim of Christ’s resurrection
-Death of the apostles (1 Cor 15:30-31)
-History tells us of that all of the apostles of Jesus died for proclaiming the resurrection except Judas the traitor & John.
-You might get someone to go to jail to defend a lie, but die?
-They had no reason to lie. There was nothing in it for them.
-This message didn’t bring people money, fame, or popularity.
-It brought them persecution, hardship and death.
-Why would they cling to such a story if it was a lie?
-Most people would change their story under the threat of death.
-Most people will say anything to AVOID being killed.
-But 10 of the original 12 apostles died spreading the message of the resurrected Christ.
-The apostle Paul even pointed this out.
30 And why should we ourselves risk our lives hour by hour? 31 For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily.
-Why would they risk so much unless it was true?
-We could go on…volumes of books have been written on this subject…we have evidence for believing what we believe.
-We believe that…
JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE…WHAT IF HE HADN’T? (1 Cor 15:13-17)
-The Bible addresses that question. Listen to this:
1 Cor 15:13-17 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.
16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
-There is a lot packed into those 5 verses.
-If Jesus really didn’t rise from the grave then logically…
-Jesus is still dead. (vs 13)
-He isn’t in heaven. He isn’t preparing a place for us.
-He doesn’t hear our prayers he cannot answer our prayers.
-If Jesus wasn’t raised to life…he’s dead…we’re dead and…
-Our message isn’t true. (vs 14)
-When the Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses come around you can’t help but think “those are some really nice people who have been deceived.”
-But if Jesus wasn’t raised from the grave…then we’ve been deceived and we’ve lived life for an untrue message!
-Our faith is useless. (vs 14)
-If Jesus didn’t rise from the grave…his teaching, his commands, all of it doesn’t matter.
-They don’t lead to heaven, they have no power to change our lives…if Jesus wasn’t raised we might as well wrap-up early, go home and burn our Bibles.
-Without the resurrection, this book we read is just the history book of some poor misguided people.
-That’s how critically important the resurrection is. All Christian belief hangs on the truth of the resurrection.
-If Jesus wasn’t raised…The apostles were lying. (vs 15)
-They said they saw him risen. If he wasn’t raised they fooled the whole world with the best lie ever!
-If Jesus wasn’t raised they were liars who died for a lie.
-We’re still guilty of sin. (vs 17)
-We aren’t forgiven. Jesus died to no effect.
-Our sins aren’t covered and judgment awaits us.
-If Jesus wasn’t raised.
-We aren’t saved. (vs 18)
-This life we live is a waste of time money and effort.
-We’re all going to die and become fertilizer
-If Jesus wasn’t raised.
-Dead Christians aren’t in heaven. (vs 19)
-No glorious reunion with family who’ve gone ahead.
-No great gathering with all the saints.
-No lunch with Moses and Elijah.
32b And if there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
-If Jesus didn’t raise from the grave We should live it up! (vs 32b)
-Let’s have the time of our lives because death is the end…IF JESUS WAS NOT RAISED. Are starting to understand?
-Everything hinges on the resurrection of Christ.
-Critics come up with all these objections about our faith and believe they’ve punched holes in our boat and our ship is sunk.
-But 2000 years ago the Apostle Paul pointed out all these things and recorded them in OUR book.
-Part of me wants to say, “Paul! You’re giving our critics their best argument against us! You’re telling them where to attack our faith
-This ancient CHRISTIAN author pointed out the implications of a still dead Jesus. He wasn’t scared of facing it. Discussing it.
-Take away the resurrection and all our beliefs crumble.
-And yet Paul himself preached this message till his dying breath because he believed the resurrection with all his heart.
JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE…WHAT IF IT’S TRUE?
-As we share and discuss with doubters and skeptics this is a powerful question. What if this message is true?
1 Cor 15:51-57 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown.
-We’ll talk about his return next week…gotta come back.
-When Christ comes back we’ll be transformed!
-We’ll get that upgraded body we’ve been longing for
-No more working out, dieting and NO MORE aging!
-And some lucky Christians will be alive when he returns which is why he says, “We will not ALL die.”
For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.
53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
-Our bodies will be resurrected! (vs 51-53)
-Those who have died will be raised. Those who live will be transformed. It’ll instantaneous and painless and glorious!
-If the resurrection is true there are implications.
-Christ was raised to live for all eternity and when we’re raised we’ll also live eternally.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
-Death in not the end for us! (vs 54)
-When Christ comes back he’ll put an end to death which means death is not the end for us but a new beginning.
-There are so many people who are slaves to the fear of death.
-They don’t want to think about, talk about it, face it.
-They leave this world afraid, clutching, grasping for one more breath because they don’t know where they’re going.
-But at the resurrection Jesus declared his power over death.
55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
-We will win victory over our sins! (vs 57)
-At the resurrection Jesus proved that his mastery over sin.
-He showed that he
57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
-If you believe in the resurrection, then you can accept the fact that
Christ really is Lord! (vs 57)
-Who but God, could raise himself from the dead?
-Who but God, has power of the grave?
-Who but God, the author of life, could secure for us a life after death?
-The resurrection is the core belief of the Christian faith.
-If the resurrection is true, and if you’ve found saving faith in Jesus, you can calmly stare death in the eyes and say, “I am not afraid. I have victory in my Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Jesus came to save.
• Jesus never sinned.
• Jesus died on the cross.
• Jesus rose from the grave.
• Jesus is coming back.
• Admit my sin.
• Trust in Jesus.
• Turn away from sin.
• Be baptized.
• Follow Jesus.
