The Beatles came storming into the United States in 1965 and not only changed history but effectively changed the calendars of American culture from BB to AB: “before Beatles” to “after Beatles.” Whether younger generations in our culture are aware of it or not, they relate to history as if we are in the year 52 AB. Everything before 1965 is ancient history.
If you watch many of the popular street interviews you see on TV, you’ll be shocked and chagrined at how many young people who came up through the American school systems don’t even know when the Civil War was.
You will be shocked and chagrined at how they can quote verbatim the words to the latest Beyoncé or Adele song, but have no clue about the basic concepts contained in our Declaration of Independence.
Our whole culture has been uprooted from its connection to history. As far as we are concerned, the actual factual events of history are no more real (perhaps even less real) than scenes from the latest fantasy movies.
So there was a day when on Easter Sunday preachers around the country would preach sermons making the case for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that would do it. That would be enough for people who might have never heard the evidence to say, “Wow! I did not know there was so much evidence. It must be true. I should become a Christian.”
Things have changed. You can preach sermons presenting historical evidence, but that won’t make a dent in the irrelevance of history to the post-modern citizen. For lots of people today, even a winning case for the resurrection is met with a mild sniff and a silent so-what.
I’m not going to take our time this morning trying to lay out that case. Anyways, if there is one thing the Bible proves, it’s this: Believing in Jesus Christ ultimately happens by a different kind of persuasion than intellectual argument. The ultimate experience of persuasion occurs in the heart of a person who humbles himself and knows in the depths of his soul that he needs to be saved from sin and self. Until that happens, no amount of proof will do the trick.
One day Jesus made that point to some Pharisees, people who thought they were too good to need salvation. He told a story of a rich man who died and went to hell, because during his lifetime he showed no compassion to a suffering beggar named Lazarus.
When this rich man appealed for mercy and comfort and found that his condition was irreversible, he pleaded for Father Abraham (the God-figure) to allow Lazarus to return from the dead to warn his family members to be more careful to show compassion. Listen to the conclusion of the story (Luke 16:29-31):
Abraham: They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.
Rich man: No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.
Abraham: If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
This is why I say trying to prove the resurrection in hopes of converting people is almost pointless. Instead today I want to talk not about proving the resurrection but about what the resurrection proves. This, as you will see, was the more important issue for the early church.
To get started let me point out how one of our traditions on Easter Sunday misses the whole point of the first Easter and the early preaching of the gospel. It has become the tradition of the church on Easter Sunday to say, “Christ is risen” and the people respond “He is risen indeed.” I am not saying that is wrong; it’s just not the profession of faith that the earliest Christians lived and died for.
Perhaps nothing reveals that better than the very first Christian sermon ever preached publicly a mere 50 days after the event. On the day of Pentecost, under the clear influence of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s sermon never once mentioned “Christ is risen.” Not once. What he did proclaim—and it made all the difference in his world, their world and should make all the difference in our world—was not Christ is risen. But “Jesus is risen.”
Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs… This Jesus was handed over to you… and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised [this Jesus] from the dead… because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 2:32-33 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
The proclamation is “Jesus is risen,” not “Christ is risen.” Why is this important? There are two reasons.
Identity Verified. First, did you know there were other people during this time period who claimed to be the Christ? Some of them were obscure figures that had no chance of attracting a large following anymore than the Green Party candidate had of winning the recent presidential election.
But there were a handful of others who made the national news back then. For example, there was a Simon of Peraea, who had been a slave of king Herod.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote of him: [He was] a comely person, of a tall and robust body; he was one that was much superior to others of his order, … and was so bold as to put a diadem on his head, while a certain number of the people stood by him, and by them he was declared to be a king, and he thought himself more worthy of that dignity than anyone else.
After burning down a few of the king’s houses, king Herod’s infantry along with some Roman soldiers caught up with him and quickly separated his head from his body. If things had gone his way, we might be worshipping Simon Christ today.
Some of these other supposed Messiah’s are even mentioned in Acts 5 when Gamaliel, a respected teacher of Jewish law, tried to get the Jewish religious court to go easy on the early Christians.
Acts 5:35-39 “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
That’s why it was such a big deal for Peter to be pointing to “this Jesus” multiple times in his Pentecost sermon, because there were other people claiming to be Messiahs. It is also why Peter defended himself before the Jerusalem magistrates after healing the lame man and being incarcerated by saying: Acts 4:10-12 It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Plus, Peter often added “of Nazareth,” because there were other people named “Jesus.” He had to make sure everyone knew his Lord was Jesus of Nazareth. So when Peter refers to “this Jesus” he is proclaiming the heart of the Christian gospel. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and we know that for a fact because He is risen.
That is why on Resurrection Sunday I believe it is not sufficient to simply say, “Christ is risen.” We need to answer the question, “Christ who?” Jesus. That’s who.
Am I just being a stickler? A nitpicker? A nag? A fussbudget? After all Peter’s emphasis on Jesus was necessary at the time to establish the identity of the Christ. But of course the reason the church at some point drifted into an unidentified “Christ is risen” is because she long since had come to understand that we all were talking about Jesus of Nazareth.
On the other hand. Just on the basis of how relationships work… bear in mind: Christ is a title, not a name. The thing I want more than anything else in my life is to have a personal relationship with God through Christ. That personal relationship is made possible only through a person, and His name is Jesus. Somehow I think the early believers who affirmed ”there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” would be sticklers.
Listen to how St. John sums up his whole gospel: John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The Kingdom Identified. I think there’s a second reason we should break our habit of referring only to Christ. As important as it is to proclaim the identity of the Christ, it is just as important to proclaim the meaning of Christ. For the resurrection proves, not only “who is the Christ” but “what is the Christ.”
You see, just as there were several pretenders to the messianic throne in Jesus’ day, there were also several points of view about what the Messiah would do when he came. Everyone believed He would usher in God’s kingdom, but what would the kingdom be like and how would He do it?
• A military leader who will struggle against the kings of the pagan nations and usher in the end-times?
• A wisdom teacher, who can rule the world "by the strength of his word" and does not need the horses, riders and archers like a military Messiah?
• A high-priest who will defend truth and righteousness by defeating the enemies of Judah and will restore the true Temple worship, which had been defiled and neglected?
• A prophet-restorer who would restore God’s people by speaking on behalf of God with His very words in his mouth?
So not only is it important to speak of “Jesus of Nazareth” being raised from the dead in order proclaim the identity of the Christ, but it is also important because that proves that what He did and how He did it reveals the nature of the kingdom God intends to establish on the earth. Get it?
When you look at the king you understand the kingdom. It’s what Jesus ushered in—the kingdom of God. It’s what we are supposed to proclaim—the kingdom of God is near. It’s what we are supposed to seek above all else—above food, clothing and shelter—we are to seek first the kingdom of God. Only by looking at Jesus do we see what we are seeking. That’s what the resurrection proves. Because it proves Jesus is the Christ, we now know the nature of kingdom and what we are meaning by praying, “Thy Kingdom come.”
Jesus Himself made this idea (namely, if you look at me you’ll see the nature of the kingdom) clear one day. The imprisoned John the Baptist, began to have doubts about Jesus’ identity. He sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus to ask: Matthew 11:3 “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Imagine that! The guy who was the first person to point to Jesus and boldly declare, “Look! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” now wonders if he was right. And so he sends some friends to ask the question. But Jesus’ reply is more remarkable. He said: Matthew 11:4-5 “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
John wonders, “Are you the Christ?” Jesus says, “Look at what I am doing.” In that one statement Jesus describes the nature of the kingdom He is establishing. That one statement made by Jesus of Nazareth and proven by the resurrection is all we need to hear in order to admit (and confess) where those things are not happening the kingdom of God has not fully come.
Isn’t that much more important than just saying “Christ is risen”? I am not trying to prove the resurrection this morning; I am reminding you about what the resurrection proves. The resurrection proves that Jesus is the true and only Messiah, and that He has ushered in a kingdom unlike any earthly kingdom ever established, based not on power but on inexhaustible, supernatural love.
The way Jesus approached life—self-sacrifice, compassion for the broken and outcast, putting others ahead of yourself always, absolute peace and contentment in the will of God, loving and blessing your enemies—all of these characteristics and more require a resurrection to prove they are possible.
No human being could possibly hope to succeed in this type of life unless the power of evil and the curse of human sin could be broken. But the resurrection proves that’s possible:
Matthew 12:28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
The resurrection proves that the person and performance of Jesus of Nazareth reveal and release the kingdom of God. To disconnect the name of Jesus from the title Christ somehow misses the whole point of Resurrection Sunday.
• His title is Christ but his name is Jesus. The resurrection proved that.
• Christianity did not spread like wildfire because His disciples kept His teaching alive; it spread from person to person, city to city, nation to nation because Jesus of Nazareth was buried dead but rose up alive.
• Christ is risen? Who is risen? Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. This is the only thing that makes all the difference.
• People weren’t baptized in the name of Christ. They were baptized in the name of Jesus. People won't bow to the title Christ. No, every knee will bow at the name of Jesus.
• Only people who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
• It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that brings healing.
• We gather in His name. We pray in His name. We are washed, sanctified and justified in His name (1 Cor 6:11). Whatever we do, we do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him, so that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in us.
• Jesus is not the idea of God, He is the image of God.
• He is not an ethical standard; He is excellence itself.
• He is not a proposition or creed. He is a person.
• He is not a divine principle, but divine power.
• He is not one of many great leaders, He’s the one and only great God.
• Not just a prophet, priest or king. He is the pre-existing, pre-eminent prevailing King of the universe.
• There’s not just “something about that name”; there’s everything about that name.
• He’s not just sufficient; He’s supreme.
• Not just a holy person, but wholly perfect.
• Jesus deserves more than praise; we give Him priority.
• We don’t explain Him; we exalt Him.
• We give Him more than worship; we give Him wonder.
• Wonderful Jesus. Matchless Jesus.
• Who is risen? This Jesus!
